Upcoming report reveals lack of women in board rooms

Sir Philip Hampton, chairman of GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), is overseeing a report on the poor representation of women in top tier level jobs, according to Sky News. The report is set to be released on Thursday.

Only one in five of the top executive roles at Britain’s biggest listed companies are taken up by women. That’s just under 20% and only 25% accounting for boardroom roles as a whole.

Hampton was appointed to run the campaign for more women in senior positions on 7 February 2016. He has a wealth of experience in leading some of the UK’s biggest companies. Aside from GSK, he was chair for Sainsburys and Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS).

He is aiming to achieve the recommendations put forward by former Minister of State Lord Mervyn Davies in 2011, to get women to make up at least a third of board directors by 2020. This target is being outstretched to all FTSE 350 companies.

Alongside Hampton, Dame Helen Alexander, chair of UBM, was also appointed earlier this year to lead this independent review by Business Secretary Sajid Javid.

"The employment rate for women has never been higher and there are now more women on FTSE boards than ever before…But we need to go further, particularly when it comes to paving the way to the executive level.” said Javid in February.

According to Sky News, the report will highlight a current trend of companies poaching female directors from each other rather than generating new women executives.

The report is also expected to say the pipeline of female executives needs urgent strengthening in the coming years, Sky News added.

"Companies cannot afford to miss out on the skills and talent of the whole population if the UK is going to compete in a fast-moving global economy," says Javid.

At an event hosted by KPMG, Hampton is expected to say that a data-gathering exercise is required before formal targets are set for female executives.