PRESS RELEASE: Women’s Organisations Across UK Unite to Demand Enactment of Section 106 for Greater Representation of Women in Politics

Women’s organisations from across the four nations of the UK have come together to call on the UK Government to enact Section 106 of the Equality Act 2010, a provision that could transform transparency and equality in political representation.

Section 106 gives UK ministers the power to require political parties to collect and publish anonymised data on the protected characteristics of their election candidates, including those standing for the UK Parliament, the Scottish Parliament, and the Senedd. Following the UK Government’s ministerial commitment in March 2025 to enact Section 106, we welcomed this important step forward. We now urge the Government to act without delay and implement this commitment in full.

There is currently no consistent or transparent approach to collecting and publishing candidate diversity data across our political parties. While some parties have made voluntary commitments, the information that is available remains patchy, inconsistent, and incomplete. As a result, it remains extremely difficult to assess progress, identify barriers, or take meaningful action to increase women’s representation in politics. Implementing Section 106 would also enable greater understanding of, and action on, representation gaps among people with other protected characteristics, including race, sexuality, disability, and age.

Women’s unequal access to power remains a fundamental barrier to achieving gender equality across the UK. In Wales, for example, women make up only 36% of local councillors and 43% of MSs. Research from women’s organisations across the UK shows that women face specific, gendered barriers to political participation, including everyday sexism, bullying, and online harassment. These barriers are even more pronounced for women of colour, disabled women, and LGBTI+ women.

Victoria Vasey, Director of Women’s Equality Network (WEN) Wales, said:

“The enactment of Section 106 is a long overdue step towards more fairness in our democracy. We currently have limited data to understand where on the candidate journey women are being left behind, and little to no data on women who experience intersecting discrimination. While parties in Wales have been encouraged by the Welsh Government to publish candidate diversity data for the 2026 Senedd elections, this data will only be consistent and robust if collecting and publishing it becomes a requirement enshrined in law. Enacting Section 106 would provide much-needed transparency, accountability, and a robust tool for measuring and comparing progress.”

Catherine Murphy, Executive Director of Engender Scotland, said:

“Access to robust data on who stands for election is essential to building a healthy, representative democracy. Without this information, we cannot properly understand why women, and especially marginalised women, remain so chronically underrepresented in our political institutions. This democratic deficit means critical voices and lived experiences are missing from the rooms where decisions are made.

Our latest research shows that no political party in Scotland has a consistent strategy for increasing women’s representation, this could negatively reflect on the upcoming Holyrood elections – it will be a crucial point in history for women in politics.

Enacting section 106 could not only help us understand where in the political journey the system fails underrepresented and marginalised women, but it can consequently help us in supporting more women getting into politics and make them want to stay there.”

Helen Pankhurst CBE, Centenary Action Convener, said:

“Despite historic gains at the last general election, women remain underrepresented, making up just 41% of MPs, even though they constitute over half the population. To change this, we need greater representation among candidates and increasing transparency and accountability in candidate selection is key to this.

We’ve long campaigned for Section 106 of the Equality Act to be enacted as a vital step for driving progress towards a gender-equal Parliament. We welcome the Ministerial commitment to Section 106 and look forward to working together to make it happen before the next general election.”

Enacting Section 106 would create a simple yet powerful mechanism to improve transparency, strengthen accountability, and drive progress toward equal representation. Collecting and publishing equalities monitoring data on candidates would enable decision-makers, activists, and the public to better understand where and why women, particularly Black and minority ethnic, disabled and young women, are being excluded from political life.

Aoife Clements, Founder of 50:50 Northern Ireland, said:

“Monitoring the protected characteristics of political candidates is important to ensure we have the full picture when it comes to who is and is not fairly represented in politics. We would like to see NI implementing something similar to section 106 of the Equality Act in Britain, our equality monitoring cannot continue to be hyper-focused on religious or political affiliation, this approach does not ensure that women, members of the LGBTQ community, disabled people, people of colour, workingclass communities and the traveller community are supported and represented in our political institutions.”

The coalition of women’s organisations (WEN Wales, Engender (Scotland), Centenary Action, and 50:50 Northern Ireland) is therefore urging the UK Government to commit to enacting Section 106.

The tools already exist. What we need now is political will. Enacting Section 106 is a vital first step toward a more transparent, inclusive, and representative democracy.

NOTES

1. WEN Wales is Wales’ leading gender equality charity. Our vision is of a Wales free from gender discrimination where women have equal authority and opportunity to shape society and their own lives. https://wenwales.org.uk

2. Engender is Scotland’s feminist policy and advocacy organisation. For over 25 years we have worked for a Scotland where women have equal opportunities in life, equal access to resources and power, and are equally safe and secure from harm. https://www.engender.org.uk/

3. Centenary Action was founded in 2018 by Helen Pankhurst CBE to build on the legacy of the suffrage movement and campaign for a gender-equal Parliament by 2028, the centenary of equal franchise. A leading voice for women’s political representation, Centenary Action brings together over 200 organisations, politicians, academics, business leaders and activists to drive change. About – Centenary Action

4. 50:50 NI is working to build a more equal and representative political system in Northern Ireland by supporting more women to get involved in politics. We run training, workshops, and events for women who want to stand for election or who simply want to better understand how politics works here. Getting More Women into Politics

4. WEN Wales’ Diverse and Equal Representation Toolkit, designed to help parties become places where people of any gender, protected characteristic and marginalised communities feel welcome and can succeed, can be found here.

5. Engender’s full report on positive action measures to increase women’s representation in politics can be found here.