Beale: punish UK companies that don’t tackle gender inequality

Dame Inga Beale – the former chief executive of Lloyd’s of London – has called on the government to impose financial levies aimed at punishing companies that aren’t seen to be tackling the gender imbalance in the workplace.

Speaking to The Daily Telegraph, Beale called on the next prime minister to penalise companies that don’t implement structures that encourage and promote women to top roles.

In an interview published today (22 June), Beale said: “[it is] time for action around setting targets and quotas for gender balance in senior leadership roles is here, with repercussions for those that don’t achieve it”.

She called for the Government to impose “some sort of levy for those non-compliant firms that could then be used for further research into achieving better gender balance or be used internally to fund specific programmes for female talent development”.

Beale - who stepped down from Lloyd’s in October 2018 after five years at the helm - left Lime Street in the wake of one of the worst loss years on record for the 300+ year-old market. 

During her time in the top job at Lloyd’s, Beale was credited with driving forward the diversity and inclusion agenda, launching the DiveIn Festival as well as being a vocal proponent of closing the gender gap in the workplace. 

In an interview with Bloomberg before she left the Corporation last year, Beale said she was eyeing a final “big” executive role after she steps down from her position.

Since her departure, the marketplace has come under fire after a report by Bloomberg accused Lloyd’s of having a “deep-seated culture of sexual harassment”.

The report featured commentary from 18 women working in the insurance market, who described an “atmosphere of near-persistent harassment” while likening Lloyd’s as “basically a meat market” at a time which coincided with Beale’s leadership of the market. 

Beale’s successor – John Neal – has taken a hard line in response to the allegations, including potential lifetime bans for perpetrators of sexual harassment, the launch of a harassment and bullying helpline and the enactment of a policy that would ban people under the influence of alcohol or illegal drugs from entering One Lime Street.

Under Neal’s watch, Lloyd’s has also turned the on site bar – One Under Lime – into a coffee shop with no alcohol served during office hours.

He has also brought a reforming zeal to the market’s oft-criticised processes under a transformation program called the Future at Lloyd’s.