Written question asked by Ian McCartney (Labour) on Wednesday, 10 June 2009, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Friday, 12 June 2009. It was answered by Ivan Lewis (Labour) on Thursday, 18 June 2009 on behalf of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Business: Ethics

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what plans he has for further development of his Department's toolkit for business and human rights for use by UK missions overseas.

Answer: The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has developed a series of toolkits to guide our posts in their human rights work overseas. The toolkit on business and human rights is the latest in this series and aims to provide guidance for UK diplomatic missions on how to promote good conduct by British companies operating overseas and to provide specific guidance on the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development National Contact Point procedure. The toolkit is still being developed with the help of other Government Departments and external stakeholders. When finalised, it will be disseminated to posts and made available as a resource on the FCO's internal web pages.

Secondary information