On 17 April, the European Parliament adopted new rules to protect whistleblowers. The rules are designed to encourage the reporting of breaches of EU law by offering to whistleblowers EU-wide protection from dismissal, demotion and other forms of retaliation in areas including public procurement, financial services, money laundering, product and transport safety, nuclear safety, public health, consumer and data protection. Those assisting whistleblowers, such as facilitators, colleagues and relatives will also be protected. Under the…

Summary This landmark judgment from the UK Supreme Court means that the claim brought by 1,826 Zambian villagers against UK-based Vedanta and its Zambian subsidiary KCM can proceed to a trial of the substantive issues in the English courts. One of the issues that now falls to be examined is the controversial question of whether a parent company can be liable for the operations of its subsidiary, in the English courts. We set out below…

On 19 March 2019, the European Parliament Working Group on Responsible Business Conduct (RBC Group) announced the contents of its Shadow EU Action Plan on Responsible Business Conduct (the Plan). The Plan sets out the RBC Group’s priorities to ensure the promotion and protection of human rights in the EU business sector over the next six years (2019-2024). The Plan was conceived as a reaction to the alleged failure by the EU to fully implement…

On 14 March, the UK Export Finance (UKEF) announced the adoption of the revised OECD Council recommendation on Bribery and Officially Supported Export Credits (the Recommendation), to prevent bribery in international business transactions. The Recommendation, while not legally binding, strengthens anti-bribery and corruption policies and procedures across adherent Export Credit Agencies (ECAs). Current adherents to the Recommendation are: members of the OECD Working Party on Export Credits and Credit Guarantees (ECG), Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica,…

On 11 March 2019, the Business Secretary, Greg Clark, announced that the Financial Reporting Council (“FRC”), a UK regulator responsible for auditors, accountants and actuaries, will be abolished. The FRC will be replaced by a new regulator, the Audit, Reporting and Governance Authority. The decision follows an independent review of the FRC completed in December 2018, which recommended that the FRC be replaced by a new regulator with enhanced statutory powers. The Government has accepted…

On 22 January 2019, the UK Government (the Government) published its second interim report as part of the Independent Review (the Review) of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 (the Act), which began in July 2018 (see our previous blogpost). This is the second report for phase 1 of the Review, and it focuses on transparency in supply chains (section 54 of the Act). The report suggests that a lack of enforcement and penalties, as…

Major international companies in the agricultural, clothing and extractive industries have recently been assessed in respect of human rights standards in their businesses and supply chains. The 2018 Key Findings Report issued by the Corporate Human Rights Benchmark (CHRB) was released on 12 November 2018. The report scored 101 of the largest publicly traded companies in the world on a set of human rights indicators built on the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human…