Committees

Fixing fashion: follow up

Inquiry

The Environmental Audit Committee will follow-up work on its 2018 inquiry, Fixing fashion: clothing consumption and sustainability. The Committee has chosen to revisit the issue to monitor progress due to continued concerns around the environmental impact of the fashion industry and working conditions in UK garment factories.

The Government rejected most of the Committee’s recommendations in 2019, which ranged from a producer responsibility charge to pay for better clothing collection and recycling to requiring due diligence checks across fashion supply chains to root out forced or child labour. However, the Government has identified textile waste as a priority area to address its Resources and Waste Strategy.

Fashion production has a considerable impact on climate and biodiversity. The global fashion industry is estimated to have produced around 2.1 billion tonnes of greenhouse gases in 2018; the equivalent to the combined emissions of France, Germany and the UK.

Fast fashion also creates a waste problem in the UK and developing countries. UK citizens buy more new clothes than any other European country and throw away over a million tonnes of clothing every year. While two thirds of clothing is either donated or collected for resale or low quality recycling, around 336,000 tonnes is disposed of in household bins destined for landfill or incineration.

The Covid-19 pandemic has shone a light on garment factories in Leicester. Reports of poor working conditions suggests there has been little improvement since the Committee’s report, which recommended regular audits and for companies to engage with unions for their workers.

The Committee’s follow-up work will consist of gathering written evidence and a one-off oral evidence session.

Read the call for evidence for more information about this inquiry.

Upcoming events

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No upcoming events scheduled

Past events

Wednesday 28 April 2021
2:30pm Public
Fixing fashion: follow up - Oral evidence 28 April 2021
2:30pm
  • Catherine Salvidge (Sustainable Textiles – Sector Specialist at WRAP (the Waste & Resources Action Programme))
  • Nicole Bassett (Co-founder at Renewal Workshop)
  • Katharine Stewart (Corporate Responsibility lead at Primark)
3:30pm
  • Maud Hardy (Circular Economy Director at Refashion)
  • Joe Papineschi (Director of circular economy policy, strategy and operations consultancy at Eunomia Research and Consulting)
  • Wayne Hubbard (Chief Executive at ReLondon)
Virtual meeting
Wednesday 16 December 2020
2:00pm Private
2:30pm Public
Fixing fashion: follow up - Oral evidence 16 December 2020
2:30pm
  • Fiona Gooch (Senior Policy Advisor at TRAIDCRAFT)
  • Peter Andrews (Head of Sustainability Policy at British Retail Consortium)
  • Dr David Moon (Head of Business Collaboration at WRAP)
3:15pm
  • Adam Clarke (Deputy City Mayor and Environment & Transportation Councillor for Aylestone ward at Leicester City Council)
  • Matthew Taylor (Director of Labour Market Enforcement at HM Government)
4:00pm
  • Mahmud Kamani (Executive Chairman at boohoo group)
  • Andrew Reaney (Responsible Sourcing and Product Operations Director at boohoo group)
  • Kelly Byrne (Commercial Director at Nasty Gal, boohoo group)
Room 6, Palace of Westminster

Contact us

We receive a significant number of emails each day. All requests and invitations are considered but we do not respond directly to everyone. Please be aware, the committee does not look at individual cases or specific complaints.

  • Email: eacom@parliament.uk
  • Address: Environmental Audit Committee, House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA