A fresh group of business leaders has banded together to call for mandatory human rights due diligence in the UK.
The call was made while the prime minister, Liz Truss, was in Birmingham for the Conservative Party conference and was signed by 63 businesses, including ALDI, Asos, the British Retail Consortium, Sainsbury’s and the Body Shop.
The letter is the latest effort to persuade UK policymakers to follow the lead of the European Union, which is currently working on new laws.
The document says the UK cannot continue with voluntary action from companies. “The UK now has a clear opportunity to retain its leading role on this issue to shape global business conduct for the better—rather than following in the footsteps of others.”
Sticking with a voluntary approach “will position the UK as a laggard,” the letter adds.
‘Real change’
According to Andrew Opie of the British Retail Consortium, his members are making changes, but it is not enough. “We will only make real change by seeing the same approach in all supply chains, which is why we support mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence for all businesses and call on the government to urgently introduce laws introducing this practice.”
James Corah, head of sustainability at investment advisers CCLA, says: “At this difficult period for our economy and our country, we should not seek to gain a competitive advantage by failing to protect the most vulnerable members of our community.”
While the campaign has been under way for some time, the Conservative conference revealed an appetite in the current government for cutting regulation on business—not adding more. One move announced was changing the definition of “small” business to include companies with up to 500 employees and, subsequently, exempting them from some reporting obligations, though it remains unclear which.
Close observers of business regulation expect more to be cut or reduced in the coming months.
EU proposals
The EU revealed it would push ahead with mandatory human right due diligence in February and continues to work on drafting a Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence directive. This would impose a duty on directors to have a strategy that complies with the Paris agreement on climate change, as well as a duty to “identify, prevent or halt” abusive behaviours in their supply chains.
Not everyone welcomed the EU’s proposals. On one side are academics who argue for postponement of the law because its scope is “excessively broad”. On the other are campaigners who claim the law does not go far enough and contains “dangerous loopholes that fail to guarantee justice”.
The debate is likely to continue, though whether the UK government will give human rights due diligence any serious consideration as it seeks to manage multiple crises is uncertain.