Whitehall is set for a shake up as all-male interview panels and appointment shortlists were banned yesterday in an attempt to boost the amount of women in top roles.

While more than half of civil servants are women, the numbers are thin at the top with only 37 per cent of senior positions taken up by women.  Fawcett Society deputy chief executive Dr Eva Neitzert said that women make up 64 per cent of the lowest-paid members of the Civil Service yet only 29 per cent of those in the highest-paid positions.

She welcomed the measures, adding that “this announcement should see Whitehall leading the way to change this culture of employment discrimination.”