‘Diversity is more than just a corporate buzzword. It is the life-blood of a dynamic, vibrant organisation. The accountancy profession needs to keep on attracting and retaining the best talent if it is to deliver on its commitment to quality. Without a truly diverse workforce, it will not be able to do this.’

When Ashley Steel, a member of the UK board at KPMG, wrote these words for a piece in Accountancy Age just a few weeks back, even she was unlikely to have realised just how much of an issue the lack of diversity across the profession continues to be. As the only openly gay board member of Big Four firm, Steel speaks with some authority on the issue.

Our survey didn’t attempt to unearth details of the sexual orientation of staff, but a glance at the proportions of female partners and those from ethnic minorities highlights just how little has changed in the last 12 months. More worryingly, perhaps, huge strides remain to be taken for the profession to describe itself as anything but ‘pale, male and stale.’

Across this year’s Top 50 firms, the average percentage of female partners stands at a very disappointing 9.7%. Despite significant noises across the profession about a desire to increase the proportion of women at the most senior levels, the situation remains depressingly familiar. In fact, the figure remains virtually unchanged from 2006 when 9% of partners across the UK’s 50 biggest firms were women.

Four of the Top 50 have no female partners. The average across the 10 largest firms gives slightly more cause for optimism at 11.8%, but the improvement is negligible, bearing in mind the huge sums invested in diversity campaigns, particularly across the Big Four. Mercer and Hole, ranked 43, tops the female p artner league with almost a quarter of its partners women.

A glance further down the food chain does little to reassure that change is imminent. We asked firms what proportion of their qualified staff were female ­ that figure reached just over a third (35%). The figure is disappointing, not least because on average more women than men enter the profession, but also as it marks a fall of two percentage points on last year.

Morley and Scott’s Linda Richardson, the only female managing partner in our sample, says the lack of diversity across the profession is a non issue. ‘It’s about partner experience and skills. A lot of the time women choose not to go for more senior roles. It’s about attitude.’

A surprisingly large number of firms (almost 60%) declined to supply us with details of their ethnic makeup. Of those that did, the results paint a mixed picture. A total of 5.9% of partners stem from ethnic minorities.

Despite being marginally down on 2006 figures, average growth rates are well into double figures. But unless the diversity rhetoric is turned into action and hard facts and figures, the profession could struggle to attract the talented staff it needs to bring home the bacon.