Lord Davies releases final report

FTSE 100 firms met a voluntary target of 25% of women board members – up from 12.5% in 2011. Lord Davies says this should now be raised to a target of 33% of women board members at FTSE 350 firms by 2020.

There is still work to be done, particularly in increasing the number of women in executive director, chairman and chief executive positions (these figure stand at 9.6%, 3% and 5% respectively) – the majority of new female held board roles are non-executives.

VW should consider compensating car owners

Volkswagen should pay compensation to car owners who have lost resale value from the emissions scandal, according to Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin.

VW has admitted to using the defeat device in over 11 million cars globally and has put aside £4.4 billion to cover recall costs – yet legal action from shareholders and customers, and regulatory fines alone may add to this expense.

Modern Slavery Act in force

Section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 came into force on 29 October which will require companies to scrutinise their supply chain and make sure they are not indirectly using forced labour.

The provision for transparency in supply chains will apply to companies (including their subsidiaries) with a turnover of more than £36 million.

1.2 million affected by TalkTalk hack

TalkTalk has released figures from an internal investigation which show ‘significantly less’ people have been affected by the recent cyber-attack against it. 1.2 million people are alleged to have had their data accessed, about 4 million less than initially feared, along with 28,000 partially obscured credit card details and 20,000 bank account numbers stolen.

UN releases assessment of climate change plans

Countries will not succeed in preventing global temperatures rising by the danger threshold of 2 degrees Celsius or more, according to a UN assessment of 146 countries’ national plans to limit climate change. The temperature increase will however be at a slower rate compared to the previous 20 years.

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