Hampton-Alexander Review update report

The Hampton-Alexander Review has published its five year summary report on improving gender balance in FTSE companies.

The Hampton-Alexander Review was established in 2016 to hold FTSE 350 companies to account for the lack of representation of women in leadership positions, and set a target of having 33% of all board and senior leadership positions held by women by the end of 2020 (see our corporate update 2017/23).

The five year summary report shows that:

• the number of women on FTSE 350 boards has risen from 682 in 2016, to 1026 in 2020;
• the target of women holding 33% of board positions overall has been met by FTSE 350 companies. As at 11 January 2021, women held 36.2% of all FTSE 100 board positions and 33.2% of all FTSE 250 board positions, but 171 companies in the FTSE 350 have not yet achieved the 33% target; and
• the FTSE 100 has 30.6% women in executive committee and direct report roles, with the figure for the FTSE 350 being 28.5%.

This is the fifth and final year of the Hampton-Alexander Review and it is not clear whether the government will commission a further review. However, the report identifies a number of recommendations for the future, including that companies should have a woman in at least one of the four roles of Chair, CEO, senior independent director (SID) and CFO, and that companies should publish a gender pay gap for their board and executive committee.