Commenting on the Davies Review on boardroom diversity, the second ever, and former Lord Mayor of the City of London, Fiona Woolf, said:

“The progress to date that some of the UK’s biggest companies have made to date is welcome and real step in the right direction. In the last four years we have put in a lot of effort to grasp this issue and brought about real change. The FTSE 100 have made an effort to deliver results that, I am sure, will encourage others.

“But this is no time to rest on our laurels and think the job is done. The figures of 26 per cent of boards now being women of only 100 companies are still far too low when you consider 47 per cent of the workforce and 53 per cent of our graduates are female. The figure of 9.6 per cent in relation to executive positions shows how much room there is for improvement. All City firms and UK-wide businesses still need to do more.“