Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of introducing a Garment Trading Adjudicator, similar to the Groceries Code Adjudicator, to reduce exploitation in the UK’s garment industry.

The Groceries Code Adjudicator has been successful in ensuring large grocery retailers treat their direct suppliers lawfully and fairly, through its effective enforcement of the Groceries Supply Code of Practice. There are significant differences between the groceries sector and the fashion industry in terms of scale and distribution of market share, so we need to understand whether this model would be as effective in driving the right sort of behaviour in garment factories. BEIS officials have met with Fiona Gooch from Traidcraft to further discuss the proposal and continue to consider this question.