Executive director numbers among the UK's 350 biggest companies have dramatically fallen, according to a new report by Deloitte.

The firm found that the number of executive directors of FTSE 350 companies had fallen by 20% in the past five years- equating to a loss of almost 360 positions since 2002.

According Carol Arrowsmith, head of the remuneration team at Deloitte, the decline is due to corporate governance guidelines which require half the board to be independent.

'Most companies have a main board and an executive committee. What is happening is that some people are sitting on the executive committee and not being promoted to the main board,' she said - the danger being that strategy is being pushed out of the boardroom and into executive committee meetings, leaving non-executive directors uninvolved.

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