The government has refused to set a timeline for a UK due diligence law – even though one was promised in the Environment Act 4 years ago. MPs used a Westminster Hall debate to demand action on Schedule 17 – the secondary legislation needed to stop products produced by illegal deforestation from entering the UK market.
Barry Gardiner, the Labour MP for Brent West, led the Westminster Hall debate. “One of the things that fuels people’s disillusionment with politics is that so much fanfare surrounds policy announcements, but so little of the hard graft of delivery gets done after the announcements are made. If we told the public that we had just destroyed the entire New Forest, they would be horrified, yet that is the area of forest that our failure to enact the due diligence recommendations has eradicated since 2021.”
“The Environment Act was an important marker that the UK takes seriously its role in the global supply chain, and that it wants to lead the way and manage the responsibility that comes with it. But a marker only stands in place of action for so long. Four years later, it has become an ironic sign of failure.”
Barry Gardiner MP
MPs from across the political divide demanded action. Liberal Democrat MP for Thornbury and Yate is Claire Young. “The new Labour Government have pledged stronger regulations to prevent UK businesses from fuelling illegal deforestation through their supply chains but every day of delay allows more trees, and the species that rely on them, to be destroyed.”
Shadow Minister Dr Neil Hudson spoke for the Conservatives: “Campaigners are urging the Government to introduce secondary legislation before COP30 this November. That is spurred on by recent reports that the UK’s imports of forest-risk commodities are linked to the destruction of forests the size of major cities such as Newcastle, Liverpool or Cardiff over the past year.”
Jim Shannon, the DUP MP for Strangeford said: “our responsibility is not just for ourselves, but for others, and not just our constituents… and our families, but to the world family.”
“The delay in publication and implementation risks sending entirely the wrong message to businesses seeking certainty, to our international partners and to the public, who rightly expect us to lead on this issue.”
Sarah Champion, Labour MP for Rotherham
There was also an intervention from Anna Geldred, the Labour MP for South East Cornwall and co-chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Global Deforestation.
“Some British businesses are already trying to do the right thing, but they need clear and consistent rules. The public is with us too. Polling by the World Wide Fund for Nature shows that 70% of British people support Government action to prevent the sale of products linked to those activities.”
Despite the repeated demands, Environment Minister Mary Creagh, failed to address a timeline for Schedule 17 in her response. But she did hint that the government was looking at whether the law should be extended to include legal deforestation too..
“It is important that we talk about the emotional and spiritual connections that trees bring to people and to places, and the threats that they face from deforestation, whether legal or illegal. I very much take my hon. Friend’s point about illegal versus legal deforestation, which is an observation that I also noted about the previous Government’s approach.”
The Merauke Project
Alex Sobel, the Labour MP for Leeds Central highlighted the Indonesian government’s Merauke Project, which has been called the world’s largest deforestation project.
“The project will destroy globally critical habitats, triggering irreversible ecosystem degradation on a vast scale. It is estimated that this one project in Papua will release an estimated 782.5 million tonnes of additional CO2, which is equivalent to a carbon loss valued at £2.1 billion.”
He demanded the UK used its role as a “critical friend” of Indonesia to demand action. “Given the UK’s global forests agenda, its leadership role in the Glasgow declaration, and existing trade partnerships, does the Minister believe this is an opportunity for the UK Government to take diplomatic action regarding this colossal project, given not just its implications for deforestation but its devastating impact on indigenous communities?”
Finance sector regulation
The debate also highlighted the GRI Taskforce’s recommendations that due diligence requirements are also essential for the finance sector. Barry Gardiner said the failure to regulate allows UK financial institutions to “continue to bankroll deforestation.”
“Since the Glasgow declaration, UK banks have provided more than £1 billion to companies that present a forest risk. Three names stand out, but for all the wrong reasons: HSBC, Barclays and Standard Chartered. Between them, those three banks have provided 97% of the £4.5 billion-worth of credit lines for forest-risk companies since the Paris agreement was signed in 2015. It is not just in government where there is a gap between policy and action.”
Human rights are crucial
Human rights abuses go hand in hand with deforestation.
“Forests thrive when indigenous rights are upheld. Our aid and climate finance must prioritise those locally led solutions. That is fundamental, not just for nature and climate mitigation, but for justice, for addressing poverty and for human rights.”
Barry Gardiner MP
Barry Gardiner MP asked: “the UK must champion a trade model that values environmental protection and human rights. As the UK is in advanced trade negotiations with the EU and India, and to a lesser extent with the USA, what discussions has the Minister had with her colleagues in the Department for Business and Trade about the need to embed deforestation safeguards and environmental standards in all future trade agreements?”
The Westminster Hall debate confirmed the cross party consensus that government action is essential and the delay to a UK due diligence law cannot continue. In his intervention Joe Morris, the Labour MP for Hexham was clear: “we need to recognise that we cannot fight climate change simply by sacrificing biodiversity. We are stripping away the lungs of our planet and the homes of irreplaceable wildlife, sacrificing the Amazon and other great forests at the altar of industrial agriculture, as land is carved out for cattle and soy at the expense of our planet’s future.”
NGO Forest Coalition 