The new UK Corporate Governance Code, formerly the Combined Code, that came into effect on the 29 June, demonstrates that the private sector have finally realised the benefit of a more diverse board, as sound business sense, and a way of avoiding the group think that led to the current economic crisis.

The code seeks to improve the accountability and increase the diversity of the private sector boards, recognising that a board comprised of talented individuals, who bring with a range of experiences and perspectives are more effective, more challenging and more efficient than the traditional board formed of people, who it often seemed were appointed for their similarities to other board members. The Code makes some very specific recommendations about trying to increase the gender diversity of board -at present, only 10% of directors in Britain’s top 100 companies are women, and 25 of the top firms have no women board members at all.

New board members, the code states, should be appointed on merit, against objective criteria, and with due regard for the benefits of diversity, including gender diversity. The Public Sector has been committed to recruiting on merit for some time, and whilst OCPA seeks to make sure appointments are transparent, it is clear from the conversations we have with participant on our About Time courses that the application process is far from straight-forward.

It will be interesting to see how the private sector approaches these recommendations, how quickly, if at all, any changes will be seen, and if there are successes in increasing the diversity of board, what the public sector will be able to learn from these.