Just Values

Economic consumption, distribution, and production in Britain shape economies – and lives – around the world. Our financial services extend globally and we have the largest net surplus in financial services trade of all nations. This global reach is also reflected in our trade in goods and services, with the UK importing £1tn and exporting £0.9tn each year.

Yet too often Britain’s ‘value chains’ – the complex commercial connections bringing goods and services together globally – contribute to environmental damage and human rights violations at home and abroad, including poisoned rivers, stolen wages, and forced labour. The extent of this harm is poorly understood, as are the wider costs, including declining public trust in democratic institutions.

In this report, senior researcher Marcus Johns demonstrates how the current regulatory framework fails to prevent harms in our value chains and the costs these harms impose. He also explores the potential costs of taking action to prevent such harms, using proposals for Business, Human Rights and Environment-style legislation as a basis for considering how legal duties could be placed on UK companies to prevent human rights and environmental abuses.