Following news last week that it has delayed the clean-up of oil spills in the Niger Delta, multinational giant Shell is now embroiled in what campaigners are calling one of the biggest corruption scandals in the history of the oil sector.
Corporate criminal liability reform and a proposed new offence of ‘failure to prevent economic crime’ were debated in the House of Lords yesterday (3 April), during the Criminal Finances Bill second Committee day. You can read the Hansard here.
It’s day two of Committee Stage in the House of Lords. This involves detailed line by line examination of the separate parts of the bill. As a reminder, the bill will create a new corporate offence of ‘failure to prevent tax evasion’, extending the ‘failure to prevent’ model in the UK Bribery Act 2010 to corporate tax evasion, although there is some question over what, if any, differences there are between ‘adequate procedures’ as specified by the Bribery Act and ‘reasonable procedures’ as specified in the new failure to prevent facilitation of tax evasion offence.
Supermarket chain Tesco escapes prosecution and pays a £129m fine and £85m in compensation to shareholders over 2014’s accounting scandal.
Global risk analyst Verisk Maplecroft has published its annual Human Rights Outlook report, outlining ten human rights risks impacting business in 2017. Verisk notes that modern slavery risks are set to increase as the United States toughens its immigration policy, pushing countless undocumented migrants further underground and exposing them to greater exploitation.
Last week (8 March) cross-party Peers debated much needed legal reform to tackle widespread corruption and human rights abuses committed by multi-national corporations.
Today we show solidarity with women worldwide, championing the efforts of those who’ve fought back against the social and economic inequality that has afforded women a secondary status to men.
Over a year in, the Sustainable Development Goals show no sign of losing momentum. Ruth Mhlanga reflects on how businesses can support the SDGs to create a world free from poverty without breaking the planet. Blog by Ruth Mlanga, Oxfam Private Sector Policy Advisor
Tuning into last Wednesday’s JCHR Business & Human Rights evidence session, I watched Fiona Bruce MP questioning BEIS Minister Margot James about the UK National Contact Point for the OECD guidelines, and its ability to resolve complaints arising from alleged human rights abuses.
