Lord Alton of Liverpool (CB)

My Lords, I thank all who have supported this amendment, both in Committee and tonight. It is an all-party amendment, so I particularly thank the noble Baroness, Lady Kennedy of The Shaws, the noble Lords, Lord Offord of Garvel and Lord Teverson, and the other signatories in Committee, including the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of St Albans and the noble Lord, Lord Blencathra, whom I see in his place. I am also grateful to the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China and its chief executive, Luke de Pulford, for its briefing note. I am always grateful to the Minister for the meetings we have had outside of the Chamber; I know that he cares as deeply about this issue, as I do. Whether or not there is a meeting of minds on the amendment this evening, I pay tribute to him for the work that he has done on this. The Joint Committee on Human Rights is currently conducting a full-scale inquiry into supply chain transparency and modern slavery. We have heard powerful evidence from Rahima Mahmut of the World Uyghur Congress, which I commend to the House. I also urge noble Lords to look at the links not just to Xinjiang and the appalling treatment of Uighur Muslims there but to other parts of the supply chain that would be caught by this amendment. That would include, for instance, children who are sent down mines in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. There are 25,000 of them, and we know that many are linked to Chinese-owned companies. Those children are forced labour too, and this amendment seeks to address that. The amendment is also informed by the July 2023 report of the Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, which warned against increased and deepening UK dependence on the CCP regime, and it urged greater national resilience. It said that China had penetrated “every sector” of the UK’s economy, underlined by three decades of trade deficits with China, which currently stand at £32 billion. The amendment goes right to the heart of this dependency—which the noble Lord, Lord Blencathra, has regularly raised—exposing a fundamental incompatibility between a rules-based liberal democracy that respects human rights and one that does not. It builds on our obligations under the Human Rights Act 1998, the Modern Slavery Act 2015, the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 and the 1948 convention on the crime of genocide, along with prohibitions from Victorian legislation, the Foreign Prison-Made Goods Act 1897, which I have mentioned to the Minister before. The amendment is modelled on, and consistent with, earlier all-party amendments, passed by substantial majorities in your Lordships’ House, to the Procurement Act 2023, the Health and Care Act 2022 and the Telecommunications (Security) Act 2021, as well as the genocide amendment to the Trade Act 2021.