Government Supply Chains: Cotton

Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne Excerpts

Thursday 24th April 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent (Lab)]

I want to put on record my personal thanks for the work that has been done by the noble Lord, Lord Alton. Before I joined the Government, I ran the Index on Censorship and worked very closely with Rahima Mahmut on many of these issues. I am aware of all the work the noble Lord has done. Unsurprisingly, I am also very grateful for the timing of the amendment on solar panels, which was tabled overnight. I thank the noble Lord for all the work he did to make this Question slightly more straightforward for me.

On the current ongoing inquiry, we look forward to engaging directly with the noble Lord and I hope to be able to discuss those matters with him personally. As he will be aware, we have taken huge strides forward in recent years with the Modern Slavery Act and Procurement Act. I look forward to working with him as we take even more strides forward.

[Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne (Con)]

My Lords, can the Minister assure us that, with the current and growing disruption of supply chains due to tariffs, she and her colleagues will pay extra attention to the output of bad supply chains of modern slavery on our high streets—simple things such nail bars, as well as hairdressing and such things? An enormous amount of modern-day slavery is already visible. Could the Government please give extra attention to that, with the disruption of supply chains and knowing that it may be more difficult to track these things?

[Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent (Lab)]

The noble Baroness makes an excellent point on quite how volatile current environments are and on ensuring that we do not forget our core value set, within which we operate. I am very pleased that police operations have increased since the Modern Slavery Act was introduced, from only 200 police operations in December 2016 to 2,750 in February this year. We are making huge strides, and I assure the noble Baroness that we will not move away from our values to ensure that modern-day slavery is not present on the streets of the UK, as well as further afield.