As the founder and co-chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Ethics and Sustainability in Fashion, she is currently working on a private members’ bill to legislate companies against labour and environmental abuses in their supply chains.
Named the Commercial Organisations and Public Authorities Duty (Human Rights and Environment) Bill, it aims to oblige companies to prevent human rights and environmental harms “so far as is reasonably practicable” on their “own operations, products, and services, those of their subsidiaries, and throughout their value chains”.
Speaking about the bill, she told the audience: “The issue for businesses is that some people will say that to make it work, it has to be voluntary – but it doesn’t work that way.
“What we want to do is to make sure this rise to the top of the agenda of the next government. No matter what size your business is or where you are based in the UK, you will be held accountable for making sure there will be no forced labour, labour abuse or environmental damage.”
Young said there is now a movement internationally to hold companies account for their supply chain operations, referring to legislation in other countries including the German Supply Chain Act, France’s Duty of Vigilance Law and Norwegian Transparency Act.
Young continued: “What’s been happening today hasn’t been satisfactory. Countries have realised that we have got to make sure that these abuses are taken out of the world. It should not be a huge leap for companies, as they should be doing all those things anyway.”
Reflecting on the Modern Slavery Act, which Young helped to shape and eventually pass in 2015 and obliges retailers to report on modern slavery in their supply chains, she said: “In section 45, companies of a certain size are required to make a statement of what they are doing to eliminate modern slavery in their businesses, so many of them said they have zero tolerance towards modern slavery.
“But that isn’t enough – anyone can say that. Companies need to be proactive and to prevent [labour and environment abuses] from happening in the first place. They ought to have accountability and [realise that] sooner or later it has to be done.”
Young believes that the new due diligence laws should have power to fine companies for failures in their supply chains: “We want to have jurisdiction to look at those statements and actions companies make in terms of citizens and communities. It has to be adequately policed. The voluntary route hasn’t worked.
“We anticipate fines and criminal offences and it should hit companies in the pockets. The fines can be used to fund the oversight [part of the legislation].”
