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 compulsory requirement for garment industry companies to publish a full list of their suppliers.

The Government currently has no plans for introducing a compulsory requirement for garment industry companies to publish a full list of their suppliers.

The Government encourages businesses to be open and transparent to respond to consumers’ legitimate interest in where and how the products they buy have been manufactured. UK listed companies are required to report on impacts material to their business including information about supply chains where this is necessary for an understanding of the business as part of their annual reports.

Under section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015, the UK became the first country in the world to require businesses to report on how they prevent modern slavery in their operations. Following consultation, the Home Office has announced a series of measures to strengthen the Modern Slavery Act. Organisations will be required to include information about their organisation’s structure and supply chains in their modern slavery statement or to explicitly state that their statement omits this information. These new measures will be introduced once parliamentary time allows.

A multi-faceted approach is required to address supply chain challenges. The Government recently hosted two Minister-led roundtables with garment industry leaders, civil-society and other key stakeholders, during which a range of different solutions were explored.

BEIS officials are also in the process of engaging with retailers, civil society and key organisations to explore the merits and challenges of different approaches.