Greenwashing: UK Parliament
- Marina Moore
- Apr 15
- 6 min read
The rise of social media and e-commerce as boosted the popularity of the fast fashion industry. A garment lifespan is often limited due to the lower quality. Factories churn out cheap new styles prioritising speed over quality. As a result, consumers keep products for a shorter duration. Mary Creagh, the Labour MP for Coventry East, at present the Under-Secretary in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, once chaired the Environmental Audit Select Committee who in 2019, attempted to fix Fashion "Fixing fashion: clothing consumption and sustainability".
The committee’s probe into UK retailers who imposed purchasing practices on their suppliers that at times amounted to illegal breaches of contract. Suppliers as a result and the need to meet their fixed costs, led to the problem being passed down to workers in the form of wage reductions. For instance, undercover reporting concerning workers in Leicester’s garment factories manufacturing clothing for the Boohoo Group earned as little as £3 an hour.
Boohoo Have Many Problems: Boohoo 2020
Boohoo Workers 2022
The Environmental Audit Committee, called on the Government to end the era of throwaway fashion through a wide range of recommendations covering environmental and labour market practices.
The Committee is recommending:
• the Government should publish a publicly accessible list of all those retailers required to release a modern slavery statement. This should be supported by an appropriate penalty for those companies who fail to report and comply with the Modern Slavery Act.
• that the Companies Act 2006 be updated to include explicit reference to ‘modern slavery’ and ‘supply chains’. Statements on a business’ approach to human rights in its supply chain should be mandatory as part of the Annual Report. The Financial Reporting Council’s (FRC) Corporate Governance Code and UK Stewardship Code, and the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) listing rules should likewise be amended to require modern slavery disclosures on a comply or explain basis by 2022. If this is not possible then a Corporate Duty of Vigilance Law, as in France, should be considered.
• that the Government strengthen the Modern Slavery Act to require large companies to perform due diligence checks across their supply chains to ensure their materials and products are being produced without forced or child labour. We also recommend that Government procurement should be covered by the Modern Slavery Act.
• that the Government works with industry to trace the source of raw material in garments to tackle social and environmental abuses in their supply chains.
• the Government should facilitate collaboration between fashion retailers, water companies and washing machine manufacturers and take a lead on solving the problem of microfibre pollution.
• the Government should ask the Health and Safety Executive to review the evidence and take action accordingly.
• manufacturers must be mindful of potential risks now and should seek to reduce the exposure of garment workers to airborne synthetic fibres.
• post 2020 SCAP should include new targets following the Ecodesign Directive, including reducing microplastic shedding.
• that the Government reforms taxation to reward fashion companies that design products with lower environmental impacts and penalise those that do not.
• the Government should investigate whether its proposed tax on virgin plastics, which comes into force in 2022, should be applied to textile products that contain less than 50% recycled PET to stimulate the market for recycled fibres in the UK.
• as part of the new EPR scheme, Government and industry should accelerate research into the relative environmental performance of different materials, particularly with respect to measures to reduce microfibre pollution.
• the Government should ban incinerating or landfilling unsold stock that can be reused or recycled.
• that lessons on designing, creating, mending and repairing clothes be included in schools at Key stage 2 and 3.
• the Government must end the era of throwaway fashion. It should make fashion retailers take responsibility for the waste they create by introducing an Extended Producer Responsibility scheme for textiles and reward companies that take positive action to reduce waste.
• the Resources and Waste strategy should incorporate eco-design principles and offer incentives for design for recycling, design for disassembly and design for durability. It should also set up a new investment fund to stimulate markets for recycled fibres.
• that the Chancellor should use the tax system to shift the balance of incentives in favour of reuse, repair and recycling to support responsible companies. The Government should follow Sweden's lead and reduce VAT on repair services.
The Conservative Government Response.
The Conservative Government's Response to Fixing Fashion Report's key recommendations:
• A new Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) scheme to reduce textile waste with a one penny charge per garment on producers.
Not accepted. Government notes EAC's one penny per garment recommendation and will consider in development of new Extended Producer Responsibility Schemes. No detail on when EPR scheme for textiles will be introduced; consultation could run as late as 2025.
• Ban on incinerating or landfilling unsold stock that can be reused or recycled.
Rejected. Government considers positive approaches are required to find outlets for waste textiles rather than simply imposing a landfill ban.
• Mandatory environmental targets for fashion retailers with a turnover above £36 million.
Not accepted. Government points to environmental savings made by a voluntary industry-led programme but fails to address evidence from WRAP that the impact of increased volumes of clothing being sold outweighs efficiency savings made on carbon and water.
• The fashion industry must come together to set out their blueprint for a net zero emissions world, reducing their carbon consumption back to 1990 levels.
Not accepted. Government points to support for the voluntary Sustainable Clothing Action Plan (SCAP), co-ordinated by WRAP with the industry working towards targets to reduce carbon emissions, water and waste.
• The scheme should reward fashion companies that design products with lower environmental impacts and penalise those that do not.
Not accepted. Govt will focus on tax on single-use plastic in packaging, not clothing.
• The report calls on the Government to use the tax system to shift the balance of incentives in favour of reuse, repair and recycling to support responsible fashion companies.
Not accepted.
• The Government should follow Sweden's lead and reduce VAT on repair services.
It says little evidence a VAT reduction has been effective in Sweden or that savings have been passed on to consumers.
• More proactive approach to enforcement of the National Minimum Wage with greater resourcing for HMRC's National Minimum Wage team to increase inspection and detection work.
Government says HMRC and other enforcement agencies already taking more proactive approach with increase in budget and officers dedicated to NMW enforcement.
• The Government should publish a publicly accessible list of retailers required to release a modern slavery statement. This should be supported by an appropriate penalty for those companies who fail to report and comply with the Modern Slavery Act.
No recommendations relating to modern slavery have been adopted.
Mary Creagh: Environmental Audit Committee.
“Ministers have failed to recognise that urgent action must be taken to change the fast fashion business model which produces cheap clothes that cost the earth.”
So, with the conservative government lack of governance, several MPs introduced a Private Members' Bill under the Ten-Minute Rule
“Fashion Supply Chain (Code and Adjudicator)”.
However, the Bill only reached first reading. 2022-2023 session of Parliament was prorogued.
Self-Regulation Is Not Working
Boohoo, continue to encourage us to overconsume. Such overconsumption hurts the environment in many ways. The more clothes manufactured, the more resources used, the more carbon emissions
and pollution are produced. They advertise their plans for sustainability while manufacturing even more polyester. Profits before the planet.
Boohoos are not alone Shein, along with all fast fashion brands renew their collections almost permanently, with a very short marketing period and continuous promotions, in order to create fashion effects and provoke a reflex of regular purchases among consumers, which is also crushing all competition. Less competition leads to lower quality and as we have seen the industry as less incentive to more away from cheap synthetic fibres like polyester.
Where The Over Produce Clothing End Up.
Second-hand shops tend to reject products from fast fashion brands. We send 300,000 tonnes of clothing a year to the incinerator, or landfill where they can take hundreds of years to decompose, or even shipped overseas, which can overwhelm the receiving countries. The UK for instance, sent 40% of its worn clothing in 2023 to Ghana.
Over the years Ghana as suffered from the environmental impact, with landfill sites now textile mountains and Ghana’s beaches now awash with clothing.
Hope Maybe On The Horizon
The UK’s response to labour exploitation in international supply chains is largely governed by the Modern Slavery Act 2015, which sets out offences of slavery, forced labour and human trafficking, as well as enhancing protections for victims of these crimes. There are concerns that while this legislation was seen as world-leading when enacted, the UK has since fallen behind other nations in its response to modern slavery in supply chains.
An estimated 27.6 million people globally are subject to forced labour, that includes 3.3 million children. There is evidence that goods made using forced labour are available to buy in the UK, meaning business practices that violate human rights may be making profits from UK consumers.
This year the Joint Committee on Human Rights has announced a new inquiry into forced labour in UK supply chains. The inquiry will examine the UK’s legal and voluntary frameworks underpinning the UK’s response to forced labour in international supply chains. It will also consider if change is needed to improve the effectiveness of the UK’s response to this form of exploitation.
We await........
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