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Fashion, retail and information technology businesses to give evidence

3 November 2020

The Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee has announced that witnesses from Boohoo, H&M, TikTok, The North Face, and Nike will appear before the Committee to give evidence on Thursday morning (from 10.30am) for the inquiry exploring the extent to which businesses in the UK are exploiting the forced labour of Uyghur in the Xinjiang region of China.

Purpose of the session

Luke de Pulford, Co-founder and Director, Arise Foundation, and Maajid Nawaz, Founder, Quilliam International, will also give evidence. Paul Scully MP, Minister for Small Business, Consumers and Labour Markets, will respond to Committee questions concerning forced labour in UK value chains and the work of the BEIS Department.

Ahead of Thursday’s evidence session, the BEIS Committee has published the written evidence submissions for its Forced Labour in UK value chains inquiry [full list of submissions with links below]. This includes information submitted by a range of companies which the BEIS Committee wrote to recently for this inquiry.

Member's comments

Speaking ahead of Thursday’s session, Nusrat Ghani MP (Conservative MP for Wealden and lead BEIS Committee member for the Forced labour in UK value chains inquiry) said:

“There is evidence of mass atrocities taking place in the XInjiang region. It’s a horrifying thought that British consumers could be unknowingly supporting businesses that actually profit from some of the actions taking place in Xinjiang, including the forced labour of Uighurs.

The BEIS Committee’s evidence hearing on Thursday represents an opportunity to examine these issues and ask questions around the transparency of value chains of business operating in the UK and, crucially, what steps companies are taking to ensure they do not benefit, directly or indirectly, from forced labour or exploitation. These businesses are trusted names for many British consumers, and it is right they should be publicly held to account. Disney, in rejecting the Committee’s invitation to appear, send out a very poor message of their respect for British consumers and the sincerity of their commitment to human rights by refusing to answer questions from MPs on these most serious issues.”

Witnesses

Thursday 5 November

At 10.30am

Panel 1 - Background and industry views

  • Maajid Nawaz, Founder, Quilliam International
  • Luke de Pulford, Co-founder and Director, Arise Foundation
  • David Sävman, Head of Supply Chain, and Hendrik Alpen, Head of Sustainability Engagement & Head of Social Sustainability, H&M Group

11am 

Panel 2 - Industry views

  • Sean Cady, Vice President, Global Sustainability and Responsibility, VF Corporation (parent company of The North Face)
  • Liz Kanter, Director Government Relations and Public Policy UK, TikTok
  • Jaycee Pribulsky, Vice President for Global Footwear Sourcing & Manufacturing, Nike
  • Andrew Reaney, Group Director of Responsible Sourcing, Boohoo Group

12pm 

Panel 3 - Forced labour in UK value chains and the work of the BEIS Department

  • Paul Scully MP, Minister for Small Business, Consumers and Labour Markets
  • Michael Warren, Director of Labour Markets, BEIS Department

Written evidence

  1. Global Magnitsky Justice Campaign on Magnitsky sanctions (FL0001) [Ctrl+click to follow link direct to submissions on Parliament website]
  2. Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (FL0002)
  3. Rights Lab, University of Nottingham (FL0003)
  4. Arise Foundation (FL0004)
  5. Ethical Trading Initiative (FL0005)
  6. Segura Systems Ltd (FL0006)
  7. HOPE not hate (FL0007)
  8. adidas UK (FL0008)
  9. Lawyers for Uyghur Rights (FL0009)
  10. Professor Laura Murphy, Sheffield Hallam University and Dr Shawn Bhimanu, Northeastern University (FL0011)
  11. Victoria’s Secret (L Brands) (FL0012)
  12. Gap Inc (FL0013)
  13. Coalition to End Forced Labour in the Uyghur Region (FL0014)
  14. Inter IKEA Group (FL0015)
  15. H&M Group (FL0016)
  16. Walt Disney Company (FL0017)
  17. Inditex (FL0018)
  18. VF Corporation (Northface) (FL0019)
  19. boohoo group (FL0020)
  20. Anti-Slavery International and CORE Coalition (FL0021)
  21. TikTok (FL0022)
  22. Quilliam International (FL0023)
  23. British Retail Consortium (FL0024)
  24. Amazon (FL0025)
  25. Hikvision (FL0026)
  26. Stella McCartney (FL0027)
  27. Marks and Spencer (FL0028)
  28. Puma (FL0029)
  29. Nike (to be published later and available via submissions page )

Further information

Image: Parliamentary copyright