Secretary for business, innovation and skills Vince Cable and his Labour counterpart Chuka Umunna have both promised to address the issue this week.
Cable has announced plans to work with former Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) chairman Trevor Phillips on a programme to improve talent pipelines for ethnic minorities moving to senior positions.
Meanwhile Umunna vowed to set up a "Lord Davies-style" review into the low number of ethnic minorities in the boardroom if Labour wins the next general election.
Kerr told HR magazine addressing this issue goes beyond ethical business practice and is part of “securing Britain’s future”.
“Our Race at the Top report earlier this year showed that only one-in-16 board members is from an ethnic minority, while in the total workforce it’s one-in-eight. At primary schools the figure is up to 28%, so clearly something needs to be done to redress the balance,” she said.
On 17 September the Financial Reporting Council unveiled an update to its Corporate Governance Code. The code is designed to improve the level of information investors receive about listed companies.
For the first time it added data about the racial make-up of companies’ boardrooms, as well as gender – a move that Race for Opportunity itself called for in June. Kerr said it’s “great” that steps are being taken, but there is a long way to go to effect serious change.
“Government has been silent on this for a long time so we’re really pleased they’re starting to take notice,” she said. “But to start getting race the same focus as gender has in the boardroom we need real benchmarks and action to shift the demographic.”
