More ethnic minority chief executives at top UK firms

Boardrooms are becoming more ethnically diverse but more still needs to be done, according to a review of the UK's largest 350 businesses.

The Parker Review said there were now 12 ethnic minority chief executives in the FTSE 100, up from seven in 2022.

But overall only 13% of senior management at the top 100 firms were ethnically diverse.

In the 2021 census 18% of people identified as being from a non-white ethnic group.

Originally commissioned by the government in 2015, the first Parker Review found the proportion of ethnically diverse personnel in UK boardrooms to be "disproportionately low".

This latest 2023 review has found considerable change within the top 350 companies.

It said that within the FTSE 100 - the UK's biggest firms - people with ethnic minority backgrounds now hold 19% of all director positions, a rise of one percentage point from last year.

The data also showed an increase in the number of companies with more than one ethnic minority director from 49 in 2022 to 56 in 2023.

It also found 96 of the largest firms met the target of having at least one minority ethnic director on their boards, in line with last year.

The Parker Review said of the remaining FTSE 250 companies, 175 had ethnic representation on their boards, compared to 148 companies in December 2022. They were "making progress" it said.

David Tyler, chair of the review's committee, told the BBC's Today programme companies were taking the issue seriously as it was having a positive impact on their bottom line.

"There's a benefit to them, in terms of their own profitability, of having a wide, much higher quality of debate," he said

"You get that by having diverse members of your team both at the board and at the senior management level."

But Michael Barrington Hibbert, an ethnic minority recruitment specialist, said new initiatives such as diverse shortlists were not working, claiming there was a "mistrust" in the process.

"More women, more ethnic minorities are being called and being approached by executive search firms to go on shortlists where they know they do not have a chance of being successful," he told the BBC.

Mr Tyler said he accepted "those issues do exist".

"I don't defend them in the slightest," he told the BBC. "But step by step companies in this country are making progress in this area."

The review said as many as 48 of the top firms set an average 17% target for ethnic minority representation within their senior management by December 2027, a four percentage point rise from current levels.

However, the range of targets was broad - from 5% to 45% - influenced by the wide variation in the share of ethnic minorities in the wider population within the UK and internationally, the review said.

There was more to be done, Mr Tyler said, but added: "You don't build Rome in a day."