International Labour Organisation

Lord Barnett Excerpts

Tuesday 5th April 2011 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Verma]

No, my Lords, I cannot agree with the noble Lord. I have made it clear throughout my responses that we support raising labour standards in global supply chains. The number of fairtrade-certified producers has increased from 1.1 million to 2.5 million. That is an improvement. We are not going backwards, but we need to make sure that every penny we spend is spent well.

[Lord Barnett]

The Minister talks about spending money well. Will she tell us whether discretionary funding is still available to her department from the reserves available to the Treasury?

[Baroness Verma]

My Lords, I will have to write to the noble Lord.