Institute of Directors: Lord Davies should rule out quotas entirely

Miles Templeman, director-general of the Institute of Directors, said in response to the publication of the review of women in business:

“We are pleased that the report stops short of advocating gender quotas for the boardroom. Quotas would have been incompatible with a meritocratic approach. However, it was unhelpful that Lord Davies did not rule out quotas once and for all. With only 11 per cent of the respondents to Lord Davies’ consultation – of which 88 per cent were women – supporting the idea of quotas, I question why he thinks the threat of quotas should remain.

“A greater diversity of people on boards in general is necessary, and this clearly means we need more female directors. The way to do this is to increase the pool of female senior executives from which directors can be recruited. Improving flexible working opportunities for aspiring female executives will be central, with companies rather than government taking the lead in creating these opportunities.

“We also believe that Lord Davies is right to argue that a combination of entrepreneurs, existing providers and individuals needs to come together to consolidate and improve the provision of training and development for potential board members. This is an area in which the IoD is ready to make a major contribution through its Chartered Director programme and other professional development activities.”