Number of women on quangos drops again to lowest for 10 years

THE number of women appointed to quangos funded with £43billion of taxpayers' cash has fallen for the fifth year in a row despite pledges by ministers to boost representation.

The latest figures released by the Cabinet Office show they make up just 33 per cent of appointees to public bodies - the lowest for 10 years.

It will come as an embarrassment to Equalities Minister Harriet Harman who has made it her mission to increase the number of women in public life.

Last week she addressed a conference on sex discrimination in the City, where women are paid on average 40 per cent less than male financiers.

Last year there were only 6,135 women appointed to the boards of quangos such as the Design Council and the Human Tissue Authority, down from 7,351 in 2004.

The number of male appointees running the bodies was up to 12,312.

The Cabinet Office's public bodies 2008 report said: "The Government is committed to improving diversity on the boards of public bodies. The overall aim is to secure equal representation of men and women." The multi-billion-pound quangos include the Environment Agency, regional development agencies, national museums and galleries, prison watchdogs and the Committee on Standards in Public Life.

Most are sponsored by individual Whitehall departments, which run the appointments process.

Hilary Benn's Environment Department was the worst-performing last year with only 15 per cent of posts on its quangos, which spend £1.4billion of public money, filled by women.

It was closely followed by the Ministry of Defence which had 16.3 per cent female appointees on the boards of bodies with a £19million budget.

Women made up just over 20 per cent of the appointees on quangos run by the Department of Innovation, Universities and Skills, which spend £22.38billion a year.

The best performer by far was Ms Harman's own Government Equalities Office, where women made up 73 per cent of the board.

Ethnic minority appointees to the quangos have also fallen, going from 6.5 per cent to 5.7 per cent in the last five years.

Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman Lord Oakeshott said: "Labour ministers pay lip service to women but they clearly don't believe a woman's place is on the board. They've let women down and they're covering it up.

"Why do ministers pretend they are on women's side when they won't back them for boards spending £43billion a year of public money?"

He criticised the Cabinet Office for failing to include the diversity figures for previous years in the report, claiming they had been left out to avoid awkward questions.

Deputy minister for Women and Equality Maria Eagle said: "This is not good enough. Public bodies make decisions which affect all of our lives, yet they don't reflect the country they serve and aren't taking advantage of the skills, judgment and experience of women. That's why we're introducing an Equality Bill which will allow public bodies to take positive action, as well as working with the Women's National Commission and other colleagues across Government to make sure public bodies have the widest pool of talent to choose from."