Lord Murray of Blidworth (Con)

My Lords, as a member of the Joint Committee on Human Rights, so ably led by the noble Lord, Lord Alton, my first remark is that I find it slightly unfortunate that the House is only now considering a report that the committee published in July 2025. But delay has been something of a feature in the long history of dealing with modern slavery and, indeed, slavery in the history of our country. As has been observed, the 2015 Modern Slavery Act, so bravely introduced by my noble friend Lady May, was a ground-breaking international instrument, which reflected in our domestic law our obligations and led the way for many countries to emulate the points that were made. That was a reflection of our nation’s long and very positive history in this area. As long ago as 1897, Parliament passed a statute called the Foreign Prison-Made Goods Act, which sought to achieve for its own time a measure of the type that is recommended in our report. One can trace a line all the way back to the great glory of the British Empire, which was the abolition of the slave trade, led so wonderfully by William Wilberforce. The recommendations of our report are, in my submission, a logical extension of that long and noble history in our country of seeking to eliminate slavery in all its forms. I appreciate that the Minister will look at our recommendations and wish to balance them against the desire not to burden business with undue regulation, which is a real and genuine concern, given the state of burdens on businesses, but I urge him to accelerate that consideration. In doing so, I circle back to a point ably made by my noble friend Lady Sugg and the noble Lord, Lord Alton: we are awaiting a response from the Government. In June 2025, the Government announced in the UK’s Trade Strategy that they would: “Launch a review of our approach to responsible business conduct, focusing on the global supply chains of businesses operating in the UK”. The JCHR received a letter from the then Secretary of State for Business and Trade, saying that he considered that the launch of the responsible business conduct review was 30 June 2025. One of the noble Lord’s earliest acts as a Minister was writing to us on 26 August. In that letter, he said that the responsible business conduct review “has now been completed, and the Government is considering its findings”. I ask the Minister: could he publish the review now, prior to the Government publishing their consideration of its findings? In so doing, I welcome the Minister to his place.