Ethical and Sustainable Fashion

Lord Young of Norwood Green Excerpts

Tuesday 19th March 2013 Lords Chamber

[Lord Young of Norwood Green]

My Lords, with that fresh in my mind I will endeavour to proceed without hesitation, repetition or deviation, as they say. If every Member in the Chamber could examine the labels in their clothing, it would reveal the global nature of high-street supply chains. I am not suggesting we do it as it might cause embarrassment for some. However, I checked my jacket—not that I pretend to be anything to do with fashion—and I noticed that it came from Morocco.

I want to focus on the ethical aspect of this debate. I declare an interest as the vice-chair of the Ethical Trading Initiative, a groundbreaking alliance of companies, trade unions and NGOs. The company members include a large number of high street fashion retailers, supermarkets and department stores, with a combined turnover of £166 billion. The trade unions represent 160 million workers around the world and a wide range of NGOs, large and small, is involved.

Every member is committed to the implementation of the ETI base code, which is founded on the ILO conventions. In brief, they state: employment is to be freely chosen, with no forced, bonded or involuntary prison labour; there should be freedom of association with the right to collective bargaining; working conditions should be safe and hygienic; child labour should not be used; living wages should be paid; working hours should not be excessive; there should be no discrimination; regular employment should be provided; and no harsh or inhumane treatment should be allowed. As you can see from the list, all the companies that are members of the Ethical Trading Initiative are on a journey in trying to ensure that workers throughout their supply chain benefit from these conditions.

If noble Lords think about some of the stories in the news, only too often unfortunately, such as workers being exploited and denied basic rights, and incidences of child labour, which have been uncovered in many of the supply chains of our high street companies, it shows how difficult it is to ensure that workers get a fair deal. These are workers whose lives are put at risk, as we saw recently in clothing factories in Bangladesh, where fire exits were locked. It shows what a long way we have to go. All of us in the Ethical Trading Initiative have embarked on a huge task in trying to open the minds of companies and consumers to the fact that clothes do not just arrive through a UK-based manufacturing process.

Many ETI brands and retailers which sell garments to UK consumers are engaged in activities that attempt to integrate respect for human rights and labour rights throughout their global supply chains. Working with sourcing states and civil society, UK retailers are at the forefront of focusing on the UN guiding principles on human rights. On that point, I know that the UK Government support the UN business and human rights agenda and that we are awaiting a document on the human rights and democracy programme from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, which is co-ordinating the policies of 12 government departments. I wish it luck in this. Can the Minister tell us when the document is likely to be published?