Diversity quotas for finance firms have been abandoned in what has been hailed as a victory against wokery.
Under the controversial plans by City watchdogs, more than 40,000 institutions would have been forced to provide annual reports on staff numbers by race, religion and sexual orientation.
They would have also been able to count employees according to their self-described ‘gender identity’ rather than their biological sex.
And the banks and insurers would then have to set targets to improve the diversity of their workforces and provide updates on progress.
The proposals sparked a backlash from politicians and campaigners who warned they risked damaging the economy by imposing more box-ticking bureaucracy on firms as well as promoting controversial gender ideology.
Senior Tories including Kemi Badenoch spoke out against the plans while the cross-party Treasury Select Committee also urged the two financial watchdogs behind them to drop the requirements for ‘extensive data reporting and target setting’.
Yesterday, the Financial Conduct Authority finally bowed to pressure, admitting the red tape would have added to the burden companies are already facing from Labour’s workers’ rights agenda.
Its chief executive Nikhil Rathi wrote to MPs: ‘We recognise there is a very active policy and legislative agenda, including on employment rights, gender action plans and disability and ethnicity pay gap reporting.
Senior Tories including Kemi Badenoch (pictured) spoke out against the plans while the cross-party Treasury Select Committee also urged the two financial watchdogs behind them to drop the requirements for ‘extensive data reporting and target setting’
Under the controversial plans by City watchdogs, more than 40,000 institutions would have been forced to provide annual reports on staff numbers by race, religion and sexual orientation (file image)
‘Many of those who responded to our consultation wanted us to align our regulatory approach with such initiatives, to avoid duplication and unnecessary costs. We therefore do not currently plan to publish new rules on diversity and inclusion.’
And Sam Woods, chief executive of the Bank of England’s Prudential Regulation Authority, said: ‘There is a growing emphasis in our work on reducing regulatory burdens on firms while still delivering our objectives, and adding significant new requirements in this area could be seen as in tension with that approach.
‘Given this, we do not currently plan to publish new rules on diversity and inclusion, and do not intend to return to this question until after the substantive implementation of any new legislation in this area.’
Last night Conservative leader Mrs Badenoch said: ‘The FCA has grudgingly withdrawn this regulation. Thank goodness.
‘Giving something the label ‘DEI’ doesn’t mean it’s a good idea!
‘This was another example of a quango stepping outside its lane to impose terrible ideas and more burdens on business. What we need is meritocracy.’
Caroline Ffiske of Conservatives for Women, who led opposition to the FCA’s diversity and inclusion consultation, told the Mail: ‘This is a very important victory for gender-critical campaigners. The FCA proposals, if they had gone live, would have allowed financial services firms to stop collecting data on sex completely and to focus instead on self-identified gender. Thus an ideology which erases women would have been spread across the entire financial services sector.
‘Questions do need to be asked of the FCA leadership team as to how these proposals got as far as they did.’
