On Thursday 10 March, the UK Covid-19 Inquiry launched a public consultation regarding the terms of reference that will establish the parameters for the Inquiry’s forthcoming work. The consultation will conclude on Thursday 7 April.
The draft terms of reference set out two key objectives for the Inquiry: (1) examining
Continue Reading UK Covid-19 Inquiry Launches Consultation on Terms of Reference
The UK Covid-19 Inquiry, which has been established to examine and learn lessons regarding the UK’s preparedness and response to the Covid-19 pandemic, launched its website on Monday 28 February.
According to the website, two experienced individuals have been appointed as Solicitor to the Inquiry and Counsel to the Inquiry,
Continue Reading UK Covid-19 Inquiry Begins Work
Last October, the Health and Social Care Committee and the Science and Technology Committee in the House of Commons announced an inquiry into the lessons to be learned from the UK Government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic. The two committees are conducting joint evidence sessions to examine the impact and
Continue Reading UK Public Inquiries and Select Committees
“Businesses that have better risk mitigation processes across their supply chains cause less harm to people… Good environmental, social, and governance practices pay off… We need to make sure that responsible business conduct and sustainable supply chains become the norm.”
EU Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders, April 29, 2020
On April 29, 2020, in a webinar hosted by the European Parliament’s Responsible Business Conduct Working Group, EU Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders announced that the European Commission (the “Commission”) will move swiftly to introduce regulation on mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence for companies, with its legislative proposal to the European Parliament and Council expected in the first quarter of next year.
In this alert, we provide an overview of the comments and commitments made by Commissioner Reynders against the backdrop of the recently published Study on Due Diligence Requirements Through the Supply Chain (the “Study”), which considered possible EU-wide regulatory interventions relating to human rights and environmental due diligence, and which provides the impetus for the Commissioner’s announcement.
Consultations to inform the Commission’s legislative proposal are expected to start in the coming weeks, so we also set out some initial factors that commercial organizations operating in the European Union may want to consider as they seek to engage with this policy process.
Commissioner Reynders’s presentation centered around the findings of the Study, which was published in late February and conducted by an expert panel that included representatives of the British Institute of International and Comparative Law, the London School of Economics and Political Science, and Civic Consulting, a public policy consultancy.
The Study involved: (i) a detailed examination of existing regulations and proposals for supply chain due diligence requirements, as well as market practices; (ii) the development of four general options for regulatory interventions at the EU level; and (iii) an assessment of the potential impact of these four options, based also on stakeholders’ perceptions of the different regulatory interventions.
In high-level terms, the Study identified and evaluated the following four options:
Option 1—No EU level policy change: This option would not involve any harmonized EU level regulatory intervention. The Study indicates that this option would be likely to result in a “patchwork” of due diligence expectations across the EU, as there are pending proposals or campaigns for mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence laws in 13 European countries, of which 11 are EU Member States.
Continue Reading European Union Justice Commissioner Commits to Regulation on Corporate Human Rights and Environmental Due Diligence