Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to deny preferential trading rights to companies from countries with poor human rights records.

The Government is committed to working with international partners and businesses to ensure global supply chains are free from human and labour rights abuses. The UK monitors all countries on the Developing Countries Trading Scheme (DCTS) on an ongoing basis for serious and systemic violations of human rights (including gender rights), labour rights and environmental obligations based on international conventions. The DCTS includes the power to suspend a country's preferential tariffs for such violations, however, it does not have the power to individually suspend a company's trade preferences.