Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the proposal by the Financial Conduct Authority to count anyone who identifies as female as contributing towards the percentage of women on the boards of listed companies, specifically the impact it would have on (1) statistics on the pay gap between men and women, and (2) increasing the participation of women in business.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is the UK’s independent securities regulator. The FCA has made a policy commitment to explore improving the transparency for investors on the diversity of listed company boards and their executive management teams. In line with this, it has recently conducted a consultation on proposals to change to its Listing Rules to require companies to disclose annually whether they meet specific diversity targets, and to publish diversity data on their boards and executive management. These are proposed to cover issues such as gender, ethnicity and other diversity issues.

The consultation closed on 20 October and the FCA is now analysing the responses. It will be for the FCA to take forward any changes to their listings rules on this basis.