Douglas Alexander – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Douglas Alexander on 2014-04-29.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what his assessment is of the effect of his Department’s Action Plan on Business and Human Rights since its launch in September 2013.

Mr William Hague

The UK Action Plan on Business and Human Rights was the first country plan produced, setting out how the Government will implement the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. We reported progress in implementation in the recently launched Foreign and Commonwealth Office Annual Human Rights Report.

Internationally the UK’s plan has shown our commitment to the widespread uptake of the UN Guiding Principles. Other countries have sought our guidance and advice in developing and producing their own plans.

The Action Plan has set out our expectations of UK business and industry on business and human rights, to encourage initiatives to introduce human rights due diligence and remedy measures into their policies and operations. The Companies Act now requires listed companies to report on their human rights impacts, and The Home Office published a draft Modern Slavery Bill last December to strengthen law enforcement capability to combat human trafficking and labour exploitation.

We are committed to reviewing the effectiveness of our Action Plan in 2015.