Let me begin by assuring you I remain committed to promoting the protection and respect of human rights in business, both at home and abroad.
I am aware of the Fairtrade Foundation’s Brew It Fair campaign which launched in May 2025 which focuses on Fairtrade’s long-standing campaign to ensuring fair pay and working conditions for those who pick and process the tea that ends up in millions of British households.
The Fairtrade foundation do magnificent work and have helped to transform lives over many decades. I completely agree with the mission statement of the campaign which says “the people growing our tea deserve to be able to live with dignity. That means earning a decent income, working in safe conditions, and having the ability to support their families and send their children to school”.
The UK was the first country to create a National Action Plan to implement the UN’s Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs), widely regarded as the authoritative international framework to steer practical action by governments and businesses worldwide on this important and pressing agenda.
This plan sets out what is expected regarding the conduct of UK businesses, including compliance with relevant laws and respect for human rights; treating the risk of causing human rights abuses as a legal compliance issue; adopting appropriate due diligence policies; and consulting those who could potentially be affected. HMG expects all UK businesses to respect human rights throughout their operations, in line with the UNGPs, including their supply chains.
The UK is also taking steps, through the Modern Slavery Act 2015, to ensure no British organisation, public or private, unwittingly or otherwise, is complicit, through their supply chains, in human rights violations. Section 54 of the Act established the UK as the first country in the world to require businesses (with a turnover of £36m or more) to report annually on steps taken to prevent modern slavery in their operations and supply chains.
The UK's Presidency of the G7 in 2021 and the resulting commitments from G7 members to tackle forced labour in global supply chains clearly demonstrates our country's commitment to ending modern slavery. I have no doubt that Ministers will continue these efforts going forward.
The UK has engaged with the UN Working Group looking at proposals for a new international treaty on business and human rights since 2015 through to the seventh session, which took place on 25-29 October 2021. As things stand, the landmark UNGPs remain the most clear, global and legally sound framework for putting respect by businesses for human rights on governments’ respective national agendas. I know it is doing all it can to support their implementation worldwide.
I understand the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and Department of Business and Trade also produce guidance to assist businesses in exercising such due diligence in countries where particular concerns around human rights exist. Although trade is vital for our economy and future prosperity, it need not come at the expense of our values or international obligations on human rights.
I am proud the UK helped to deliver the first global agreement to transition away from fossil fuels at COP28, building on progress made at COP27 and the UK's leadership at COP26. As President and host of COP26, the UK led the way on securing agreement from 141 world leaders to work together to halt and reverse forest loss by 2030 under the Glasgow Leader's Declaration on Forests and Land Use. Signatory countries account for over 90 per cent of the world’s forests, including first-time commitments from Brazil and China.
Domestically, the UK has introduced world-leading due diligence legislation through the Environment Act to tackle illegal deforestation in UK supply chains. This will make it illegal for larger businesses in the UK to use key forest risk commodities produced on land illegally occupied or used. Businesses in scope will also be required to undertake a due diligence exercise on their supply chains, and to publicly report on this exercise every year, or risk fines and other civil sanctions. These provisions will be implemented through secondary legislation.
While this is an issue I will continue to monitor closely, in light of the full range of action outlined above, I do not, as you suggest, think a new Business, Human Rights and Environment law is required. I do, however, share the missions of the Fairtrade Foundation and I look forward to seeing the specifics of the proposals they would like to bring forward through legislation in the coming months.
