关键建议之一是引入强制克尽职责要求GRI建议中一些重要范围界定方面包括:

• 应有的注意义务应同时涵盖侵犯人权和环境风险和影响,这些风险和影响需要仔细和清晰地定义and
• obligations for companies should be commensurate with the size of the organisation, their impact and ability to influence change;
• the financial sector should also be covered by a similar mandatory due diligence obligation, undertaking due diligence in order to avoid their lending and investment activities funding deforestation.

The extent to which any eventual legislation will incorporate these suggestions is currently unclear.

The GRI also recommended the introduction of a legally binding target to end deforestation within UK agriculture and forestry supply chains as soon as practicable, by no later than 2030.

Next steps: consultation

The UK Government — in particular, the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs ("Defra")  — has launched an online consultation on the draft legislation to solicit views from the UK and international stakeholders (closing on 5 October 2020).Feedback to the consultation will inform the Government's response to the GRI's due diligence recommendation, and assist in weighing the potential impacts of the proposed legislation on businesses and other interests.

If the Government decides to legislate, the intention currently seems to be to that the legal framework will be established in primary legislation, followed by more detailed secondary legislation, and subject to further consultation.

Wider context: the proliferation of due diligence obligations

Following the UN's adoption of the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights ("UNGPs"), there has been an increasing trend of national and regional regulatory initiatives, including human rights and environmental due diligence and reporting requirements.

One such significant initiative is in motion an at EU level.On 29 April 2020, the EU announced that it would introduce legislation in 2021 to make human rights and environmental due diligence mandatory for EU companies (see our May 2020 blog post here).欧洲议会目前正在编写关于这个问题的立法倡议报告,我们期望委员会在今后数月内进行协商。欧盟司法和消费者事务专员最近确认,委员会将将该条例列入2021年委员会下一个正式工作方案(预期于2020年10月发布)。These efforts are taking place in the context of the EU's wide suite of regulatory initiatives that are part of the "European Green Deal" (see an overview webinar here).

The UK Government considers that by introducing a mandatory deforestation and ecosystem supply chain law, it will provide businesses with some legal certainty by setting a "floor" and minimum standards to meet.  However, against a backdrop of a rapidly evolving patchwork of due diligence requirements — including the more comprehensive, potential EU human rights and environmental due diligence regulation — it is possible that, for in-scope businesses, the UK's introduction of further issue-specific due diligence obligations will exasperate the compliance challenges caused by a piecemeal approach.