Overseas Companies: Xinjiang

(asked on 18th May 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment his Department has made of (a) how many British businesses operate in Xinjiang, China and (b) proportion of those businesses have published Modern Slavery statements.


Answered by
Paul Scully Portrait
Paul Scully
This question was answered on 24th May 2021

We do not have data setting out trade and investment flows between the UK and individual Chinese provinces. However, we are undertaking some internal analysis to strengthen our evidence base. Businesses can have complex, multi-tiered global supply chains which create significant challenges in having visibility over working conditions throughout the supply chain. This means that companies need to be constantly vigilant in assessing and addressing their risk exposure. We have provided detailed and specific guidance to UK businesses, and we will continue to engage them on this issue.

Section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 established the UK as the first country in the world to require businesses to report annually on steps taken to prevent modern slavery in their operations and supply chains. In order to assess compliance rates, the Home Office contracted the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRRC) from September 2019 to January 2020 to undertake an audit of compliance on the Home Office’s behalf. The audit findings on levels of compliance were published on 17 September 2020 in the Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner’s annual report (available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/independent-anti-slavery-commissioners-annual-report-2019-to-2020).

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