Jurisdiction
For products sold in UK
Law Summary
A proposed UK Private Member’s Bill (not currently progressing) aimed to create a corporate offence of failing to prevent human rights abuses in operations or value chains, requiring organisations to implement reasonable prevention procedures. Its principles might influence future government policy.
Law Obligation
Reasonable human rights and environmental due diligence includes, as a minimum
Integrating human rights and environmental due diligence into policies and management systems
- Identifying, assessing and addressing actual or potential human rights and environmental harms, through prevention, mitigation and remediation
- Establishing or participating in and maintaining effective grievance mechanisms
- Tracking, verifying, monitoring and assessing the effectiveness of measures taken and their outcomes
- Communicating with stakeholders and reporting publicly on findings
- Human rights and environmental due diligence must include informed, meaningful, and safe engagement with stakeholders
- Commercial organisations must annually publish and submit reports to the Crown Prosecution Service registry website within six months of the financial year’s end. These reports must cover human rights and environmental due diligence, outcomes achieved, ongoing improvement measures, value chain traceability, detailed reporting on GHG emissions (scope 1, 2, and 3), and other relevant information.
