Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of requiring (a) the public sector and (b) UK businesses to conduct human rights and environmental due diligence.

The Government supports and encourages the current voluntary approach to due diligence by UK businesses as set out in international frameworks such as the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and the OECD Guidelines on Multinational Enterprises.

Whilst the Government keeps this approach under review, we currently have no plans to require companies to conduct due diligence assessments for human rights and environmental protection on top of their existing annual corporate reporting obligations.

The Department has made no assessment of due diligence policies across the activities of the public sector as whole.