I think that some of the things that my right hon. Friend has just mentioned may have contributed to the state of affairs when we left office. As the Davies report makes clear, this is an historically complex issue. The easy conclusion to draw would be that our business community has a high level of overt and outrageous discrimination. I know through my own practice as an employment lawyer that, unfortunately, that still exists in some small pockets of the business community. However, I think that there are cultural factors at play and that the issues that women in the workplace face with regard to child care and flexible working all contribute to the
lack of progression in the pipeline of appointments in different companies. To tackle that, individuals need to take a lead and have the will to bring about cultural change in individual organisations.
To be frank, one thing for which I do not apologise is our reluctance to move straight towards prescriptive legislative solutions to these problems. I believe that we should regulate or legislate as the last resort, but what has become clear is that, as Lord Davies concluded, there needs to be far more will in the business community, never mind the political community. Another important point that Lord Davies made is that we should be clear about not ruling out taking further action in this House if we do not see enough progress culturally in the business community.
As the report made clear, many of the more than 2,500 responses to the Davies review said that women with the relevant experience were frequently overlooked for development opportunities and that there were differences in how men and women were mentored and sponsored, giving men an edge over their female peers in gaining appointment to boards. We cannot tolerate that in a society that seeks equal opportunities for all, regardless of background. To do an effective job, boards must be made up of competent, high-calibre individuals who offer a mix of skills, experience and backgrounds. I fail to see how our boards can optimise their performance unless they are representative of the population as a whole. After all, in many cases, their customers are the population as a whole. There is a wealth of evidence to back that up, and it is all in the Davies report.
If we accept that the status quo is wrong and believe that it compromises the performance of our companies and our economy, as Opposition Members do, action has to be taken. That is why we endorsed all the recommendations of the Davies report. Those who argue against action often accuse those who argue for it of engaging in tokenism and of promoting diversity over merit. Of course board appointments must always be based on merit, with the best qualified person getting the job, but to suggest that no action should be taken is to presume either that there are not enough women who merit appointment or that there are not enough women who want to be appointed. That flies in the face of the evidence in 2013. There are plenty of women who merit appointment. Diversity and appointment on merit are not mutually exclusive. The problem is that there are barriers and obstacles that must be broken down to ensure that the appointment of women is as usual as the appointment of men.
The Davies report advanced a set of 10 voluntary measures, as the Minister has said, with a view to there being a minimum of 25% female representation on boards by 2015. The Minister went through the most recent update so I will not go through all the details, but there has been not insubstantial progress towards achieving the 25% goal. However, more action is clearly needed if we are to achieve the goals set out in the Davies report. Even if the goal is met, I believe that 25% is a modest aspiration. We should all want companies to make more progress than that. The Government should keep the matter under review and should reserve the right to introduce more prescriptive measures to force faster and greater change if necessary.