Source · Select Committees · Foreign Affairs Committee
Recommendation 30
30
Equipment manufactured by companies such as Hikvision and Dahua should not be permitted to operate...
Recommendation
Equipment manufactured by companies such as Hikvision and Dahua should not be permitted to operate within the UK. We recommend that the Government prohibits organisations and individuals in the UK from doing business with any companies known to be associated with the Xinjiang atrocities through the sanctions regime. The Government should prohibit UK firms and public sector bodies from conducting business with, investing in, or entering into partnerships with such Chinese firms, to ensure that UK companies do not provide either blueprints or financing for further technology-enabled human rights abuses. (Paragraph 59) The UK’s approach to atrocity prevention
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government
Acknowledged
The Government is committed to supporting UK businesses to engage with China in a way that reflects the UK’s values and takes account of national security concerns. Last year, we published guidance to help cutting-edge UK firms negotiate the ethical, legal and commercial questions they may encounter in China or when working with Chinese businesses, supporting safe and appropriate UK-China collaboration in the digital and technology space. The guidance provides firms with clear, up-to-date information and specialist support. Our OBR guidance makes clear to UK businesses operating in China the need to consider the risk of exposure to entities that may be providing or developing surveillance technologies in Xinjiang. The measures announced by the Government in January also include the provision of new guidance and support for UK public sector bodies to exclude suppliers where there is sufficient evidence of human rights violations in any of their supply chains. The FCDO is working with the Cabinet Office to introduce the new guidance, which will enable commercial teams to more effectively exercise their discretion to exclude suppliers linked with modern slavery and human rights violations. This new initiative builds on a wide range of work already underway to increase the capability of commercial teams across government to prevent modern slavery in public sector supply chains. The forthcoming Public Procurement Bill will further strengthen the ability of public sector bodies to disqualify suppliers from bidding for contracts where they have a history of misconduct, including forced labour or modern slavery. We will set out more detail on this in the coming months. The UK’s approach to atrocity prevention