'Government rejects series of BEIS Committee recommendations to prevent Xinjiang slave labour in UK supply chains', 10 June 2021

"The Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) Committee has today [Thursday] published the Government’s response to the BEIS Committee’s Uyghur forced labour in Xinjiang and UK value chains (which was published on 17th March 2021)...

The Government’s response refuses to commit to clear timeframes and substantive actions in response to the majority of the original BEIS Committee report’s recommendations on areas such as strengthening the Modern Slavery Act 2015, enhancing the transparency and accessibility of modern slavery statements and developing options for civil penalties in the event of non-compliance.

These issues are picked up in a letter from Darren Jones, BEIS Committee Chair, and Nusrat Ghani MP (Conservative MP for Wealden and lead BEIS Committee member for the Forced labour in UK value chains inquiry) to Paul Scully, BEIS Minister, expressing the BEIS Committee’s disappointment that the Government has rejected many of the Committee’s recommendations..."