Big businesses may soon be required to report the self-declared gender of senior staff – rather than their biological sex – if proposals by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) are approved.
In a consultation document on diversity at board level in big business, the FCA has said that hundreds of companies listed on the stock exchange may soon be asked to include men who say they are females as women in their annual returns.
The financial regulator subscribes to Stonewall’s controversial ‘Diversity Champions’ programme and is currently ranked among the top 100 employers in the LGBT lobby group’s Workplace Equality Index.
Self-ID
The FCA consultation paper recommends that at least 40 per cent of relevant company and executive board committee members should be women, “including those self-identifying as women”.
At senior level, the paper continues, at least one board position should be occupied by a woman, “including those self-identifying as a woman”. The rule change would mean boards could be filled exclusively by biological males.
The remaining gender “reporting categories” proposed by the FCA are “Men – (including those self-identifying as men)”, “Non-binary”, and “Not specified/prefer not to say”.
The consultation process closed on 20 October and the new rules are anticipated to come into effect later this year, if backed by the FCA Board.
Women ‘erased’
According to The Times newspaper, Stonewall trustee and executive director of the FCA Sheldon Mills helped draft the diversity targets in the consultation document.
One City worker told The Times: “Effectively the institutional capture of the FCA by Stonewall is about to become, by stealth, the institutional capture of all the hundreds and thousands of financial services companies regulated by the FCA and all the billions of pounds they spend and invest, whether or not they agree with the Stonewall approach.
“Who is going to want to go up against their own regulator? Companies like mine will fall into line because no one wants to be seen as non-compliant. Women are being erased. How is this ok?”
Sex redefined
The organisation Sex Matters said the FCA should “follow the law” and that it was not its role to “redefine the sexes”.
It also accused the FCA of “abandoning straightforward, accurate data on the number of male and female directors” and asked why the financial regulator had “rolled out the rainbow carpet” on this issue.
Sex Matters also raised concerns over Stonewall’s influence at the FCA, citing Sheldon Mills’ dual responsibility and the regulator’s involvement in the lobby group’s schemes.
Earlier this month, Nolan Investigates exposed how politicians, civil servants and public bodies across the UK had unquestioningly accepted controversial and often misleading advice from Stonewall in shaping key policies.
BBC presenter warned reporting on Stonewall could affect his ‘career and safety’
Stonewall ‘coerces’ employers to champion trans agenda
Public bodies paying thousands to join Stonewall’s pro-LGBT scheme
Simon Callow: ‘Stonewall militant trans ideology is tyrannical’