Recommendation 1

There has been significant progress, particularly since 1997, towards women’s equal representation in the House of Commons. However, women still only make up just over a third of the House of Commons’ 650 MPs. There are considerable variations in women’s representation in the House across the political parties, which have taken different approaches to their selection of parliamentary candidates. There are also very considerable variations in representation of minority ethnic women across the parties. Lack of equal representation undermines our democracy and, while selection processes remain predominately a matter for the political parties, the Government should take steps to incentivise effective action on gender sensitive and inclusive selection processes across the board. We echo the The Good Parliament report, the UK Gender Sensitive Parliament Audit 2018, our predecessor Committee and witnesses to our inquiry, including the Equality and Human Rights Commission, in recommending the Government enact without further delay section 106 of the Equality Act 2010 on diversity data of candidates. Greater transparency is likely to incentivise political parties to take steps to select parliamentary candidates who are representative of the communities they seek to serve and allow for clearer scrutiny of the parties’ contributions to achieving a gender and diversity sensitive House of Commons.