The Muslim Council of Britain decided yesterday impose a minimum quota of 20 per cent for women on its Central Working Committee from 2014.

The proportion of women on the organisation's main decision-making body was 11 per cent for the 2010-12 period. And a spokesman told civilsociety.co.uk that the organisation expects this to rise to about 13 per cent once all of the votes for this year’s appointments to the committee have been counted.

The Muslim Council of Britain is an umbrella body with more than 500 affiliated national, regional and local organisations including mosques, charities and schools. Members send delegates to the general assembly every two years who vote on appointments to the comittee. There are 37 elected members of the Central Working Committee and national and regional member organisations can make one direct appointment to the Committee.

The Committee is responsible for running the organisation and carrying out policies agreed at the general assembly and is currently considering how it will implement the new policy.

It was part of a range of constitutional amendments aimed at making the umbrella body more democratic, voted for by delegates at its general meeting.  The proposed amendments were put before delegates following a two-year review led by outgoing election commissioner Judge Kjurshid Drabu CBE.

From the next election in 2014 the secretary general will be elected directly by the delegates attending the AGM rather than by those appointed to the CWC.

Farooq Murad, who was re-elected as secretary general, said: “Looking ahead, I see before us many opportunities to grow as a confident and emerging Muslim community, and for the MCB as an organisation working on behalf of that community.”