The latest Parker Review has found that 96 of the 100 largest UK companies have at least one ethnic minority director on their board, with 56 of those exceeding this target.
However, this remained at the same level reported in last year’s review, with the same four FTSE 100 companies still lacking ethnic minority representation on their boards.
The four laggards are Diploma, Frasers Group, Howden Joinery Group and Intermediate Capital Group. These companies had until the end of 2021 to meet their target, so have fallen over two years behind on that commitment.
Even so, the review has made much progress since its first report in 2017, more than doubling the number of FTSE 100 companies with ethnic minority directors from 47 to 96.
In total, people from an ethnic minority background account for 19% of all 1,053 director positions in the FTSE 100, which is one percentage point higher from last year.
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Progress was also made in the FTSE 250, with 70% having an ethnic minority board member – up from 60% in last year’s report.
Here, ethnic minorities account for 13.5% of all 1,701 director positions, climbing 2.5 percentage points since last year’s report.
Businesses in this index have until December this year to meet their target. The review said: “Each year we see considerable progress from the FTSE 250. We are hopeful that this momentum will accelerate as we approach the December 2024 target deadline.”
And for the first time, the Parker Review also gathered information on board representation from the 50 largest private companies in the UK. It found that less than half (44%) of those businesses had an ethnic minority director on their board.
Only 36 of the companies the review contacted responded, so it “hopes to receive a greater number of responses” in future reports.
Having not included private companies in its research in the past, the report said that they “represent a major part of the UK economy and are just as likely to benefit from ethnic diversity as companies in the listed sector”.
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