Little Hands’ student has been looking at the government’s response to clear calls for legislation to improve the fashion industry’s impact on its garment workers and the environment:
The UK Parliament’s response to the Fixing Fashion: Clothing Consumption and Sustainability inquiry had been published this week and all essential recommendations by the inquiry, informed by scientists and specialists from the industry and academia, to make the fashion industry more environmentally friendly have been rejected. Here’s an overview of what’s been decided:
The Government responded to evidence supporting that UK garment workers aren’t directly receiving minimum wage with claims that with increased budgets, more is being done to ensure the minimum wage is being paid directly to all workers. They also recommended that textile retailers sign up to the Global Framework Agreement, which serves to protect the interests of workers across multinational companies.
The Fixing Fashion report states, “Retailers failing to comply with the Modern Slavery Act should be faced with a penalty,” yet the Government hasn’t adopted the recommendation as to the punishment of these retailers. It’s said, however, that the Transparency in Supply Chains (TISC) provision in the Modern Slavery Act has led to many suppliers providing statements with an explanation as to how they are addressing slavery globally in their supply chains.
The Government also rejected the recommendation to “ban incinerating or landfilling unsold stock that can be reused or recycled” on the grounds it doesn’t believe that this is a ‘positive approach’ despite the financial and environmental impacts and the imbalanced proportion of emissions released when unsold stock is burned.
Furthermore, the inquiry’s suggestion the VAT on repair services should be reduced wasn’t accepted. The Government says this is unlikely to happen, as the VAT funds the Government’s spending on health, defence, and education.
Although Parliament’s response to the inquiry was overall negative, it did acknowledge the potential of education in ‘fixing fashion.’ The Government’s response focused on room in current curriculum for these topics to be taught in schools.
Environmental Audit Committee Chair, Mary Creagh MP’s response to the government’s inaction sums up our thoughts on the issue: “Fashion producers should be forced to clear up the mountains of waste they create. The Governments has rejected our call, demonstrating that it is content to tolerate practices that trash the environment and exploit workers despite having just committed to net zero emission targets.” For now, it seems the Government is unwilling to acknowledge the evidence and recommendations presented to them in the inquiry despite their claims that they are fighting climate change.
Here’s a link to a more in-depth article on the same subject: https://tollydollyposhfashion.com/2019/06/fixing-fashion-uk-government-sustainability-fashion-industry-inquiry/