Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether the Government has taken recent steps to increase transparency on overseas ownership of UK property.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Shadow Minister without Portfolio
The Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Act 2022 created a new Register of Overseas Entities to crack down on foreign criminals using UK property to launder money. Government legislated for it within weeks of the invasion of Ukraine, and with the assistance of Parliament expedited regulations needed to launch the Register, which opened on 1 August 2022.
Please see my Written Ministerial Statement made on 1 February 2023, which provided an implementation update at the end of the six-month transitional period.
Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether her Department has held discussions with employers on offering flexibility and part-time work to people with long Covid-19.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Shadow Minister without Portfolio
The Department speaks regularly with employers and business representative organisations about flexible working. These discussions have covered a range of issues, including the importance of flexible working in managing employees with long term health conditions, such as long covid.
In December 2022 the Government announced plans[1] to make the right to request flexible working a day one right, alongside other changes to make flexible working more accessible to all employees. The Government is pleased to support the Employment Relations (Flexible Working) Private Members' Bill[2] which will deliver several of these changes.
[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/making-flexible-working-the-default
[2] https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/3198
Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of requiring (a) the public sector and (b) UK businesses to conduct human rights and environmental due diligence.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Shadow Minister without Portfolio
The Government supports and encourages the current voluntary approach to due diligence by UK businesses as set out in international frameworks such as the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and the OECD Guidelines on Multinational Enterprises.
Whilst the Government keeps this approach under review, we currently have no plans to require companies to conduct due diligence assessments for human rights and environmental protection on top of their existing annual corporate reporting obligations.
The Department has made no assessment of due diligence policies across the activities of the public sector as whole.
Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what recent steps the Government has taken to improve legislation on environmental and climate standards in British retailer and company supply chains.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Shadow Minister without Portfolio
In April 2022 the UK became the first G20 country to introduce mandatory reporting in line with the recommendations of the Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosures, for economically significant UK companies. Additionally, section 172 of the Companies Act 2006 requires directors to have regard to the impact of their company’s operations on the community and the environment, amongst other things. The Government strengthened this requirement in 2019 by requiring directors to make an annual statement explaining how they have discharged their section 172 duty in practice over the previous reporting year.
The UK Government has introduced world-leading due diligence legislation through the Environment Act to help tackle illegal deforestation in UK supply chains. In 2021-22 we ran a consultation to seek views on how we should implement Environment Act provisions, including which commodities we should regulate through the first round of secondary legislation, and have since published a summary of responses, available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/tackling-illegal-deforestation-in-uk-supply-chains.
Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of creating a garment trade adjudicator to monitor trading practices on (a) pay and conditions, (b) environmental rights, (c) women's rights and (d) trade union representation in the supply chains of UK brands and retailers.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Shadow Minister without Portfolio
In response to the Single Enforcement Body consultation published in 2021, the Government reaffirmed its commitment to continue engaging with enforcement bodies and industry partners to strengthen our understanding of the garment trade. We will continue to review this issue and consider options to drive up standards across the sector.
The fashion sector relies on complex supply chains crossing multiple borders. Retailers only have direct relationships with suppliers they have a contract with, not their tier 2 or 3 suppliers, and an adjudicator could not regulate relationships with sub-contractors. This raises issues in terms of feasibility of an adjudicator to effectively regulate the vast complexity of global fashion supply chains, and risks driving even more production offshore.
Since October 2020, a wide group of stakeholders comprising retailers, manufacturers and non-profit organisations have worked with the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority to address poor working, pay, and purchasing practices in UK supply chains.