Fairtrade Certification

Andrew George Excerpts

Thursday 11th December 2025 Westminster Hall

[Andrew George (St Ives) (LD)]

I congratulate the hon. Member on the way he is articulating the case for Fairtrade. It is important that it is robust and traceable and has strong integrity, but if we are to scale up, should we not also integrate international Fairtrade standards into the Groceries Code Adjudicator, which is part of UK legislation? After all, the GCA is looking only at the final supplier to the large supermarkets in this country. If we can establish a strong relationship between international Fairtrade and the Groceries Code Adjudicator, which is currently under review, would that not be another step forward?

[Martin Rhodes]

The hon. Member’s highlights that certification schemes, important though they are, are not the only answer; we need to look at legislation and statutory guidance that will drive change in the system overall. I will speak later about what we can do in legislative terms to ensure that all the supply chains involved in goods and services sold in the UK are properly regulated and that we have a system in place to look at standards in the UK and elsewhere in those supply chains.

A recent example of the advocacy work of the Fairtrade Foundation is its “Brew it Fair” campaign, which called for greater accountability and responsibility in the tea sector. Some 13 million people source employment from the tea industry, and 60% of the world’s tea is produced by smallholder farmers. Regrettably, this market is made up of a high number of farmers and workers with low incomes and wages, working in the context of increasingly difficult conditions for farming due to climate change. This campaign called on the Government to do more to collaborate with the industry to deliver living wages and incomes for those in the tea sector and to be bolder in how we approach supply chain due diligence, and called for the UK to continue to honour its international climate finance commitments. During Fairtrade fortnight, at the end of September, around 117,000 people across the UK engaged with more than 1,000 local grassroots activities in support of the “Brew it Fair” campaign. Many of them were Fairtrade communities, a network of local campaign groups across the UK.

My hon. Friend the Member for Lancaster and Wyre (Cat Smith) wished to speak today but is unable to do so due to prior commitments. However, she told me she wants on the record her recognition of the hard work of the Garstang Fairtrade community—passionate campaigners on these issues in the world’s first Fairtrade town.

Support for Fairtrade cuts across communities and generations, from faith communities who see it as an important part of their social mission, to student activists inspired by its empowering impact, to rural communities who know through lived experience where power lies in agricultural supply chains. When Fairtrade hosted tea farmers from Kenya and India to speak directly to politicians and policy makers, that demonstrated exactly why advocacy is so important: it closes the vast proximity gap, often spanning cultures and oceans, between those who make decisions in this place and in boardrooms and those working at the very beginning of supply chains to deliver so many of the goods we enjoy.

Yesterday, Fairtrade’s “Brew it Fair” campaign culminated in a cross-party group of MPs, activists, and representatives from business and the Fairtrade Foundation handing a petition in to Downing Street, signed by over 21,000 people, containing the main asks of the campaign. The petition calls on the Government to introduce a law on human rights and environmental due diligence to oblige the public sector and businesses to prevent human rights abuses and environmental harms across their supply chains. I look forward to the Minister reflecting on the asks of the campaign in his response. In particular, I ask that he updates us on the Government’s position on human rights and environmental due diligence. The petition’s ask is the most important of the campaign, and the clearest ask of this debate.

[Andrew George]

I am dreadfully sorry to ask, but is the hon. Gentleman aware that those who are campaigning for Fairtrade believe that it can succeed properly only if this Government lead the way with their official development assistance budget, which has been severely cut? Does he agree that to achieve the aims that we all want to achieve, the Government need to look at their ODA budget? I cannot see how we can help countries enough if do it purely through trade.

[Martin Rhodes]

Trading relations become more important in the context of cuts to aid budgets, not just here but elsewhere in the world. Trade and business become more important as means of supporting and helping countries, and of narrowing gaps of inequality globally. There is a separate debate, which we might have at another time, about the levels of aid from the UK and elsewhere, but in the current context, trade becomes more important, not less.

In recent correspondence I had with the University of the Arts London, it highlighted structural challenges that are particularly clear in the fashion and textile sector. The debate so far has concentrated on food, but the university’s analysis shows that, despite strong consumer demand for ethical clothing, uptake of standards such as Fairtrade remains limited because of the lack of regulatory pressure, opaque multi-tiered supply chains and the competitive disadvantage faced by responsible brands. Its research underlines exactly why certification alone cannot fix a market that rewards the cheapest, rather than the fairest, production. We need human rights and environmental due diligence legislation to create that system change.

Some may worry that such legislation is a recipe for more red tape that will hamper growth, but that need not be the case. Many UK businesses already have to follow EU directives because that is where a large part of their market is. We risk becoming a dumping ground for unethically sourced products while our own British companies, following best practice in order to trade with our closest and largest neighbours, are undercut. Some 50 global businesses have already signed statements calling for human rights due diligence legislation, including UK brands such as Tesco, Twinings and John Lewis. Organisations such as the Corporate Justice Coalition are working hard to advocate on the issue by proposing a business, human rights and environment Act.

Current legislation on supply chain transparency lacks effectiveness. Section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 requires companies only to report on their operations, but not necessarily to take responsible actions to address and prevent the problems. Having met the Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner, I am aware that they are pushing for mandatory human rights due diligence legislation in the UK. I would appreciate the Minister making reference to the commissioner’s work in his response.



Fairtrade shows that ethical trade can deliver; human rights and environmental due diligence would take it from optional to systemic. That said, the lessons of this debate for the Government are not just about the Fairtrade mark, a more ethical tea industry, or even important changes in due diligence laws. As we face a world of pressures and reductions in aid budgets, including our own, it places on us a greater and more urgent responsibility to use progressive approaches to trade and business and to promote progress on human rights, the environment and economic growth concurrently.

I shall conclude on that wider context. With the reductions in UK official development assistance, we should be viewing ethical trade and responsible business as cost-effective ways to put our principles into practice. Principles such as poverty reduction, gender equality and environmental sustainability can all be advanced through strong due diligence laws, and by growing our trade with allies that share the same high standards. But we are also required to take proactive action against regressive trade policies—most notably the use of investor-state dispute settlement provisions, which are mechanisms to allow overseas investors to sue Governments for taking legitimate regulatory decisions in the public interest.

The Government’s recent trade strategy contains very welcome and strong commitments to embedding human rights and environmental practices into our trade policy. I similarly welcome the Government’s responsible business conduct review, which shows their commitment to tackle the issues we are addressing in this debate. Such Government engagement, led by the Minister, is welcome.

The Labour Government was elected on an ambitious programme for workers’ rights and environmental sustainability. This is now an important opportunity for us to put those priorities into practice, not just here in the UK but in our global supply chains. I look forward to the Minister’s response and the rest of the debate.