High street fashion brands including Boohoo, H&M and Nike have denied all claims around using products produced by the forced labour of Uighur Muslims in China.
In their written evidence to the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) committee examining forced labour in the UK supply chains, all these brands have categorically stated that they are ensuring human rights are not violated and maintaining a strict vigilance on the ethical administration of their supply chains.
In its written evidence submitted to the House of Commons, Boohoo noted, “We have carried out an initial assessment of our China supply base and do not believe that we are directly engaging with any factories in the XUAR to produce our products. In addition, we do not knowingly source any fabric from this region. We have written directly to all our Tier 1 suppliers, with clear expectations that no sourcing takes place from this region. Unlike most other retailers, a large proportion of our suppliers are based in the UK.”
The company’s statement arrives following a series of controversial reports which alleged of worker exploitation and unsafe conditions at UK suppliers engaged with BooHoo. Thus, the company was under the scrutiny of both national and local government and gradually an independent review had been undertaken examining the company’s administrative lapses.
In its statement to the BEIS committee, BooHoo explains, “Following the release of the Independent Review into our UK supply chain this year, we have redoubled our commitments to supply chain visibility. Supply chain compliance has become a mandatory item on every Board Meeting agenda, and we have constituted an additional Board Committee on Risk to enable better identification and closer monitoring of the risks we face as a business. The Group is also introducing a new Supply Chain Compliance Committee comprised of recognised cross-sector experts, which will report into the Risk Committee and be led by our new Director of Responsible Sourcing.
“Within the next five months, we will consolidate our approved UK supplier list. In this timeframe, we will also invite new suppliers who have a track record of ethical and sustainability policies to be included on our supplier list and extend our independent audit programme to the rest of our UK and global supply chain. In 2018 Boohoo PLC became members of NGO charity Hope4Justice / Slave Free Alliance, to support our Modern-Day Slavery due diligence and have been engaged with members of their team almost weekly for the last few months.”
The BEIS committee was established after several reports alleged that thousands of Muslims from China's Uighur minority group are working under coercive conditions at factories that supply some of the world's biggest brands.
