Appoint women directors or face quotas

Big companies must appoint more women as board directors or face quotas, the boss of £12bn nuclear project has said.

She previously thought quotas were a “really bad idea”, preferring gender equality to be achieved without them, but said “something has to change”.

However, the majority are non-executive directors, while the percentage of women in executive roles such as chief executive or chief financial officer has flatlined at 9.7%.

“I was looking at some statistics the other day that 86% of the top 80 UK energy companies don’t have any women executives… We’ve got to change that,” said Ms Parry-Jones, who is on the board of Wylfa Newydd’s developer Horizon Nuclear Power.

“For 30 years, in my life of work, people have been saying we’re on the verge of a breakthrough. 30 years later, the breakthrough hasn’t come.”

There is a “huge pipeline of very talented women”, she argued, but the industry is losing many of them mid-career and must make sure working conditions are attractive.

Anglesey-born Ms Parry Jones was the first and only woman to run a nuclear power station in the UK when she took over at Heysham 1 in Lancashire in 2008 – something she would like to change.

She has settled back into life on Anglesey having been appointed to Wylfa Newydd in April, tasked with overcoming a number of hurdles including getting planning permission and marine licences.

The UK government said it would take a stake in the project and Ms Parry-Jones defended taxpayers’ money being used on a national infrastructure project.

“Some of these big infrastructure projects… have a very long timescale before you start returning some investment back to shareholders,” she said.

Ms Parry Jones said local people would also benefit from the development – at the height of construction, about 9,000 people are expected to be employed. A third will be local and another third will come from elsewhere in the UK.

She added: “My great hope for the future is not only do we create high-quality employment [for locals] but perhaps specifically that I find the next female station director.”