Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether he has made an assessment of the implications for his policies of recent reports of allegations by Burmese workers who produced F&F clothing for Tesco that they were subject to forced labour and low pay conditions.

The UK Government is clear that it expects all UK businesses to respect human rights throughout their operations, in line with the UN Guiding Principles on business and human rights. In 2015, we introduced the Modern Slavery Act, which requires businesses with a turnover of £36 million or more to publish an annual modern slavery statement stating the steps they have taken to prevent modern slavery in their operations and supply chains.

The Government expects companies to report transparently about how they are mitigating modern slavery risks and to use their modern slavery statements to demonstrate year on year progress. This enables consumers, shareholders and civil society to scrutinise the efforts being made. The Foreign Secretary has not discussed labour conditions or the rights of garment workers in Thailand with his counterpart in Thailand.