Government urged to set quota for women MPs and councillors

The review by the Women and Equalities committee also include recommends quotas for a minimum proportion of female candidates in Parliamentary elections – and sanctions for any party which fails to comply.

The findings by the panel of MPs comes in response to concerns that the proposed review of constituency boundaries could lead to a drop in the number of already under-represented women MPs.

Committee chairman Maria Miller stressed that Government, Parliament and political parties all have a “vital role” in improving the situation, but it is parties that should bear the main responsibility.

“In their evidence to our inquiry, the leaders of political parties agreed that the Commons would benefit from gender equality, and a range of initiatives is in place to improve the situation,” she said. “But we saw little to justify their confidence that these will be sufficient.

“Political parties bear the lion’s share of the responsibility for improvement. Trusting in long term trends is not enough: we need intervention to accelerate their pace.

“We look to the leaders of those parties to give these efforts the urgency and priority they require.”

The UK was recently ranked 48th globally for female representation in the legislative chamber – a fall from 25th place in 1999.

Women currently account for just 30 per cent of Parliament’s 650 MPs, and there are concerns that the Boundary Commission’s proposals to reduce the number of seats to 600 could have “regressive” consequences.

The committee calls on the Government to set a domestic target of 45 per cent for representation of women in Parliament and local government by 2030, in order to bring it in line the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

It also urges ministers to introduce legislation in this Parliament making it mandatory for women to make up 45 per cent of a party’s candidates in a general election.

It adds that parties that fail to comply need to face sanctions, such as a fine or lost deposit, for the quota to be effective.