U.K.-listed companies would have to disclose what they are doing to get more women and "other under-represented groups” into senior management positions under a new Government proposal.

Lord Davies, the minister for trade, investment, and small businesses, has written to the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) asking it to include a measure to that effect in the Combined Code of Corporate Governance that listed companies are expected to follow. The FRC is in the process of updating the Code.

Davies said the FRC should add a new principle to the Code, requiring disclosure on three points: what the company’s position is with regard to director-level posts occupied by women and other under-represented groups; how this meets the needs of the company and its governance; and what the company’s policy is for “achieving greater diversity in the boardroom.”

The proposal was backed by a strongly worded comment from Prime Minister Gordon Brown promising "more serious action" against companies unless there was "a dramatic change in the composition of company boards in the future."

Only one in ten FTSE 100 board directors are women and 25 firms have no women on them at all, according to Cranfield School of Management research. Brown said it was “completely unacceptable that some of our top 100 public companies have not a single woman on their boards—and that none at all have a majority of women on their boards.”

An FRC spokesman said the regulator would consider the proposal.

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