We’ve recently had responses from both the Equality and Human Rights Commission (‘EHRC’) and the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (‘DBIS’), to our FoI requests for evidence supporting the claim of a positive causal link between ‘improved’ gender diversity on boards and enhanced corporate performance. The EHRC response was literally laughable, and we’ll be posting a critique of it in due course. The DBIS response was merely poor – I’m being kind – so I’m going to ask them for an internal review of the matter. Here’s the letter received from the DBIS, along with our critique:

120917 DBIS response to FoI Act request, and our critique

On Thursday I had a very civil conversation with Helen Whitehead, the author of the DBIS letter. I offered to present my IEA lecture to her and her colleagues, including Vince Cable. He’s among the politicians who most need to be exposed to the robust case against ‘improving’ gender diversity in boardrooms. The number also includes David Cameron, George Osborne and Theresa May. I wrote to them recently, again offering to present my IEA lecture.