Speaker's Conference must be more than a talking shop

Action needed on ‘equality guarantees'

13 November 2008

Recent Hansard Society research has found that only 18% of the public believe that Parliament broadly reflects the make-up of British society, accurately reflecting the under representation of women and ethnic minority groups at Westminster.

Fiona Booth, Chief Executive of the Hansard Society said: ‘We welcome the Speaker's Conference announced today and urge parliamentarians to seize this opportunity to rise to the challenge of ensuring that Westminster more accurately reflects those it represents.'

Previous Hansard Society research over the past 20 years has reported on the under-representation of women in UK public life, particularly in the House of Commons and put forward the following key recommendations for political parties and government:

• Political parties should:

o       Support the principle of equal political representation and encourage women from a diversity of socio-economic and ethnic backgrounds to seek political office.

o       Ensure selection processes are non-discriminatory; to this end they should employ equality promotion measures, for example, gender - and Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) - sensitive training for party selection committees and party members

o       Employ measures that guarantee parity of representation

o       Monitor their selection procedures

• Government should

o       Implement international protocols

o       Provide funding for political parties to institute, operate and monitor equality selection procedures

o       Fund research on equal representation

Editors' Notes

• The Hansard Society is the UK's leading non-partisan political research and education charity.

• A Speaker's Conference is convened by the Speaker of the House of Commons following an invitation from the Prime Minister. Under the impartial leadership of the Speaker, MPs from both the major and minority parties are brought together to consider issues within the electoral system.
• The Conference has been asked to: ‘Consider, and make recommendations for rectifying, the disparity between the representation of women and ethnic minorities in the House of Commons and their representation in the UK population at large; and to consider such other matters as might, by agreement, be referred for consideration.'

• The Speaker's Conference is expected to report its recommendations in 2009 at the end of the current Parliament.