Evidence to the Speaker's Conference on Parliamentary Representation

Peter Riddell, Hansard Society Chair, and Dr Ruth Fox, Director of the Parliament & Government programme, have given oral evidence to the Speaker's Conference on Parliamentary Representation. The Conference is considering, and will make recommendations for rectifying, the disparity between the representation of women, ethnic minorities and disabled people in the House of Commons and their representation in the UK population at large.

A transcript of the hearing will appear on this webpage and a video can be found here. The Hansard Society's written evidence submission will be published by the Conference in due course. The Speaker's Conference is currently hosting an online forum where the public can give their views on the issues under consideration.

The Hansard Society has recommended to the Conference that the political parties, the government and Parliament all have a role to play in improving the representation of women, BME and disabled people. The parties should take measures to substantially increase the number of women, BME and disabled people in their selections, and ensure that this takes effect in winnable seats. They should also ensure that selection processes are non-discriminatory, taking account of existing advice on promoting equality, and providing training for party selection committees and party members where appropriate.

The Government should, while recognising the independence of parties, endorse a permanent place for permissive legislation on the selection of women candidates. It should, along with all parties, actively support the extension of the Sex Discrimination (Election Candidates) Act that permits the use of equality guarantees and which is due to expire in 2015. It should also fund research on equal representation, and after the general election a detailed study of the efficacy of the parties’ different approaches to improving representation will be required.

Parliament should commission a research study of the lessons to be learnt from Scotland and Wales with regard to the representation of women, exploring how the political parties and the new political institutions achieved a significantly higher level of representation than the House of Commons, what reforms have been instituted and how important these have been in improving female representation levels, and what factors account for the recent decline in the number of women elected in the devolved legislatures at the last elections.

The Hansard Society's evidence to the Speaker's Conference is part of our ongoing work in the area of Representative Democracy.