Diversity and inclusion: how is the UK measuring up?

It is now well over ten years since the UK spearheaded voluntary measures, board and executive led, to improve diversity on company boards. 

FTSE Women Leaders review

In February, the FTSE Women Leaders Review launched its 2025 report: Achieving Gender Balance. The FTSE Women Leaders Review is the successor of the Hampton-Alexander Review and is aimed at increasing focus on gender diversity at board and senior leadership level by government, companies, and investors. The FTSE Women Leaders Review focuses on the FTSE 350 but over the past two years it has also looked beyond the largest listed companies to examine diversity in leadership at 50 of the largest private companies and partnerships in the UK. The UK remains second globally in terms of percentage of women on boards, behind only France at 45% which operates a quota system rather than the voluntary system in the UK.

The 2025 report, based on 2024 data, found that women accounted for 43% of board roles and 35% of leadership roles in FTSE 350 companies and includes the following key findings.

• FTSE 350 companies continue to show strong progress with women on boards now at 43%, meaning that almost three quarters of the FTSE 350 are now meeting or exceeding the 40% target for boards.
• FTSE 350 companies have had no all-men boards since 2019. However, there are still four companies, similar to last year, with only one woman on their board.
• In the FTSE 350 there are 16% women executive directors and 50% women non-executive directors while the 50 private companies have 29% women executive directors and 33% women non-executive directors. These differences in board composition reflect the lower representation of women non-executive directors on the boards of the 50 private companies.
• In respect of the four senior board roles, being Chair, Senior Independent Director, CEO and CFO, there has been continued progress in representation in the role of the SID where women now hold 56% (2023: 47%) of positions in the FTSE 350. Women hold one in five Chair roles (17%). Meanwhile, the number of women CEOs has fallen from 21 in 2022 to 20 in 2023 and now to 19 this year.
• Although investment trusts are in scope for the review their business model is different from other FTSE 350 companies. This year, 88 investment trusts had at least one woman in the four senior board roles. 
• There has been some progress in the number of women in the executive committee and their direct reports, which now stands at 35% for the FTSE 350 (2023: 34.5%) with 29% on the executive committee itself (2023: 28%).
• In respect of the top 50 private companies and partnerships, board representation for women stayed at 31%, the same as in the 2023 report. The number of women in the executive committee and their direct reports stayed roughly the same at 37% in comparison with 36% in the previous year. However, the number of CEOs has dropped from 12 in 2022 to 10 in 2023 and now to 8 (19%) in 2024. 47 out of the 50 companies that were approached submitted data to the review.

The review suggests that by now it would have anticipated that more women would be in one of the four senior board roles (CEO, CFO, Chair, SID) because many have served on several boards and for a number of years, allowing companies to have broader choices of experienced women when making appointment decisions.

The report sets out the following recommendations:

• Gender balance: The voluntary target for FTSE 350 boards and for FTSE 350 leadership teams is increased to a minimum of 40% women’s representation by the end of 2025. To maintain gender balance over time, and provide a degree of flexibility, companies should aim to maintain the representation of both men and of women at, or above, a minimum 40% threshold.
• Senior roles: FTSE 350 companies should have at least one woman in the Chair or Senior Independent Director role on the Board, and/or one woman in the Chief Executive Officer or Finance Director role in the company by the end of 2025. All companies should increase their efforts to understand and remove bias from the selection process on Board and Leadership appointments.
• Locking in progress: Key stakeholders such as the Investment community and corporate governance agencies should continue to set best-practice guidance, or have in place alternative mechanisms as appropriate, to encourage any FTSE 350 board that has not yet achieved the 33% target, to do so.

Parker Review

The Parker Review was first commissioned in 2015 and set its first targets in 2016, for FTSE 100 companies to have at least one ethnic minority director on the board by December 2021 and for FTSE 250 companies to meet the same target by December 2024. In March it published its 2025 update report based on 2024 data: Improving the Ethnic Diversity of UK Business.

Key findings include:

• In the FTSE 100, 95 companies reported having at least one ethnic minority director on the board, with ethnic minority directors holding 19% of all board positions (2023: 96 companies, 19%).
• In the FTSE 100, people from ethnic minorities held the following senior roles on the board: 13 CEO positions, 7 CFOs, three other executive roles and 8 Chair positions. For FTSE 250 this spread was as follows: 14 CEO positions, 11 CFOs, two other executive roles and 7 Chair positions.
• In the FTSE 250, 82% of companies met the 2024 target of at least one ethnic minority director on the board, with ethnic minority directors holding 15% of all board positions. (2023: 70% of companies, 13.5%).

It has been two years since the review extended its scope to senior management, asking the FTSE 350 to set their own targets for 2027 and to the top 50 private companies and partnerships to meet the same targets as FTSE 350 companies by a target date of December 2027. Findings in this area include:

• The proportion of ethnic minorities in senior management positions stood at 11% for the FTSE 100 (2023: 13%) and 9% for the FTSE 250 (2023: 12%). Where companies reported to the review that they had set 2027 targets for the proportion of ethnic minorities in senior management positions, these averaged out at 15% for the FTSE 100 and 13% for the FTSE 250. 57 companies out of the FTSE 100 and 69 companies out of the FTSE 250 shared these targets.
• In respect of the top 50 private companies and partnerships invited to participate in the review, 48% of those had already met the target of having at least one ethnic minority director on the board (the target the private companies have been asked to meet by December 2027), with ethnic minority directors holding 13% of all board positions. 13% of private companies have now set a target for 2027 in respect of ethnic minority executives in senior management.

The report sets out a series of recommendations from the Change the Race Ratio campaign: 

• Talent pipeline: Cultivate and develop a talent pipeline that is more reflective of the diversity of people living in the UK. Robust data collection and the analysis of an employee population will help to identify gaps and enable companies to track progress effectively.
• Setting targets: Setting clear, measurable targets for ethnic minority representation within leadership teams is critical.
• Develop individuals: A strong talent pipeline that identifies how best to nurture and develop that talent, will help to ensure that those individuals are prepared for senior roles. Approaches include sponsorship, mentorship and structured training. 
• Enhance recruitment practices: Identify and eliminate bias in job descriptions, ensure diverse candidate shortlists, establish transparent progression pathways and focus on internal mobility.
• Create inclusive cultures: Promote psychological safety, leverage employee resource groups for insights, take deliberate actions to address unconscious biases and systemic barriers.