Asked by: Tom Rutland (Labour - East Worthing and Shoreham)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether his Department is taking steps to audit overseas factories that import into the UK for the same (a) social and (b) ethical compliance standards applied to domestic manufacturers.
Answered by Douglas Alexander - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The UK supports voluntary due diligence approaches taken by UK businesses to identify and prevent exploitation of workers and prevent environmental harms across their operations and supply chains, in line with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) and the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises.
To promote the OECD Guidelines, the UK also operates an independent UK National Contact Point (NCP). The UK NCP engages bilaterally and multilaterally with the 51 other NCPs around the world, to ensure a consistent application, awareness and understanding of the OECD Guidelines.
Asked by: Tom Rutland (Labour - East Worthing and Shoreham)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps his Department is taking to ensure international companies exporting into the UK are held to the same (a) quality and (b) safety regulations as domestic (i) manufacturers and (ii) sellers.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Product safety regulations set requirements for the safety of consumer products placed on the UK market. Importers must ensure their products comply and distributors must not supply products that they know, or should know, are dangerous.
The Office for Product Safety and Standards and local authority regulators enforce the law. They use data and intelligence to target enforcement activity at dangerous and non-compliant products at the border.
The Government’s Product Regulation and Metrology Bill will provide powers to further strengthen our product safety framework and update it to reflect modern supply chains, including through new, proportionate duties on online marketplaces.