PRESS RELEASE
Embargoed: 00.00hrs, Thursday 22 June 2000

Legal change could allow quotas for women, says Constitution Unit

Independent think tank the Constitution Unit today says that a change in the law could allow political parties to apply quotas for selection of women candidates. This would help improve women's representation at Westminster, in the devolved assemblies, in local government and the European Parliament.

Political parties have been cautious about using quotas, ever since the Labour Party's policy of all women shortlists was rejected by an industrial tribunal in 1996. Government meanwhile has been warned that a legal change to allow quotas could create problems under European law or the European Convention on Human Rights. However, the new report from the Unit, based on interviews with senior lawyers, suggests that this is not the case.

The report's author, Meg Russell, said:

"Political parties all over Europe use quotas, and this results in far higher levels of women's representation than we have in the UK. Yet here government and the parties have become paralysed by fear of the legal consequences. Evidence collected for this report suggests that there would be no problem for government adopting a new law permitting parties to use quota systems. Even if there were problems in the past, recent legal developments in Europe mean that many of the potential barriers to such action have now dropped away."

The report analyses a range of options for legal change, and proposes that the best solution would be a short electoral law governing candidate selection. Candidate selection is currently governed by the Sex Discrimination Act, and under these proposals this would end. Instead there would be a short Act stating that selections must be fair, but may use 'positive action' (quotas) to boost representation of under-represented groups.

Meg Russell said:

"Britain continues to lag behind the rest of Europe on women's representation, particularly at Westminster. Evidence from here and overseas shows that women's representation is generally only boosted when quotas are in force. A legal change would allow political parties the freedom to adopt quotas if they wish, which could help ensure we get more women into the British parliament."

Notes for Editors:
1. The Constitution Unit is a specialist think tank working on the implementation of constitutional reform. It is independent and non-partisan, based in the School of Public Policy at University College London. This project was funded by the Nuffield Foundation.
2. Women currently make up 18.2% of MPs. This compares with 43% in Sweden, 37% in Denmark, 36% in Finland and the Netherlands, and 31% in Germany.
3. Many parties in other European countries use quotas. In France parties are now required by law to put forward equal numbers of men and women candidates, or pay financial penalties. A similar law is in force in Belgium, and this approach has been considered in both Italy and Portugal.
4. Women's representation at Westminster received its biggest boost in 1997 when the number of Labour MPs rose from 38 to 101. But this was primarily due to the policy of 'all women shortlists' which was ruled by an industrial tribunal in January 1996 to be in contravention of the Sex Discrimination Act 1975.
5. Labour used a system of 'twinning' constituencies between women and men for the Scottish Parliament, National Assembly for Wales and Greater London Assembly. The Liberal Democrats chose to alternate male and female candidates on lists for the European elections in 1999. These policies proved effective. However, they were potentially open to legal challenge. Fear of such challenge means no party now has a system in place which guarantees increased representation at Westminster. Few women candidates have been selected - for example only four Labour candidates are women, out of a total of more than 30 selected so far.

"Women's Representation in UK Politics: What can be done within the Law?" is available from 22 June from the Constitution Unit priced at £10.

Contacts:

Report author: Meg Russell 020 7679 4974 (work)
(Senior Research Fellow) 020 7226 5727 (home)

Constitution Unit Director: Robert Hazell 020 7679 4971 (work)
020 7267 4881 (home)

Women's Representation in UK Politics: What can be done within the Law? - Executive Summary
This report considers the legal situation in the UK regarding 'positive action' by political parties to promote the selection of women candidates. Its purpose is to clarify the situation following the 1996 industrial tribunal decision against the Labour Party's all women shortlist policy, taking into account more recent developments. It is based on interviews with senior lawyers, representatives of the parties, and others. The main points are:

· Women's representation in UK politics remains relatively low. Though progress has been made in some areas, women remain only 18% of members of the House of Commons. This compares with 43% of parliamentarians in Sweden and 37% in Denmark.

· Experience in the UK and overseas shows that women's representation is boosted when parties use positive action ('quotas'). Recent improvements in women's representation made by the Labour Party at Westminster, and other parties elsewhere in the UK, has been primarily thanks to positive action.

· The UK parties have been cautious to adopt quotas since the industrial tribunal decision. Since then the Employment Appeal Tribunal has confirmed that selection of candidates is subject to the Sex Discrimination Act and Race Relations Act. More discrimination cases are therefore likely against parties, either because of positive action policies, or where women and ethnic minority candidates feel they have been discriminated against.

· Government could potentially resolve this problem by changing the law, but when this was proposed in 1998 some lawyers said this would put the UK in breach of European or human rights law. Yet many parties elsewhere in Europe operate quotas, and some countries - most recently France - have imposed quotas by law.

· Since 1998 there have been many legal developments. The Amsterdam Treaty has come into force, and the European Court of Justice has become more supportive of positive action. Meanwhile human rights law allows positive action which is 'proportionate'.

· Given these facts, and the prevalence of political quotas around Europe, it is highly unlikely that the European Court would interpret EU law as preventing quotas by political parties. The Court would be subject to heavy lobbying by member states and would not take such a controversial decision.

· Likewise, a legal change that permitted positive action would be unlikely to cause difficulties for government under the Human Rights Act - although parties might be challenged if they adopted quota systems which were not considered 'proportionate'. If the law were changed to make quotas compulsory the chance of a challenge against the government succeeding would be higher.

· The best solution would be a new electoral law to govern candidate selections. This could require fair procedures, but also allow positive action to promote women (and possibly other under-represented groups). Such a law would explicitly allow parties to adopt quota systems, and result in fairer representation for women. It would make clear that candidacy was not employment, and thus end the involvement by employment tribunals in resolving disputes between members and parties. It could require fair selections, in a framework which allowed parties and their members to retain control of the process.

This page last modified 3 July, 2007 by p.diamond@ucl.ac.uk