Women: Board Membership

Baroness Gould of Potternewton Excerpts

Monday 17th June 2013 Lords Chamber

[Lord Pearson of Rannoch]

My Lords—

[Baroness Gould of Potternewton]

My Lords—

[The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (Lord Hill of Oareford)]

My Lords, I think there is time for both if we have the noble Lord, Lord Pearson, very quickly and then Labour.

--- Later in debate ---

[Baroness Northover]

The directive that is potentially coming from the EU is a useful discipline. We need British business to demonstrate that it does not need to be applied in the United Kingdom because we have already made sufficient progress.

[Baroness Gould of Potternewton]

My Lords, I appreciate that the Government are very keen to get as many women as they can on to company boards but does exactly the same position apply to the appointment to public boards for which the Government are responsible? Perhaps she could tell us what is the Government’s strategy to get more women on to public boards?

[Baroness Northover]

The noble Baroness is quite right. We have an aspiration, as she probably knows, that 50% of appointments to public boards should be women by 2015. I have seen the figures that are just being finalised for the current state of affairs, and it is looking encouraging that we are moving in the right direction, but we are not complacent.