When more than 1,300 lending bosses, regulators and MPs descended on Grosvenor House hotel on Park Lane in London for a black-tie dinner in late February, they arrived informed.
FLA endeavours to ensure all participants, regardless of their gender, ethnic origin, religion, belief, disability, age or sexual identity, experience an event that is free of any discrimination or harassment. FLA takes reports of any such behaviour extremely seriously and will respond to them with appropriate actionhile the introduction of the UK’s Equality Act in 2010 undoubtedly kickstarted businesses’ diversity and inclusion efforts, their progress, or lack thereof, has faced mounting scrutiny since 2017 with the #MeToo movement and scandals in the City.
The personal experiences shared with MPs – which ranged from bullying to rape – left the powerful panel with an impression that work-related harassment had merely shifted out of office. Instead, post-work drinks, conferences and business trips were now becoming a “danger zone” for women, the committee’s Conservative chair, Harriett Baldwin, said.
“There’s a real awareness that, if you have a reputation, it could ruin the business,” said Joanna Chatterton, a partner and employment lawyer at the law firm Fox Williams. “They have to be seen to be taking steps so that they can say: ‘If somebody behaves badly, we took all reasonable steps to try to prevent this happening.’”