Policy paper

UK government response to the OECD peer review of the United Kingdom National Contact Point

Published 1 December 2020

UK government response to the OECD Peer Review of the United Kingdom National Contact Point

Introduction

The United Kingdom has a National Contact Point (NCP) to promote responsible business conduct. The NCP is based in the Department for International Trade as part of the department’s role in securing British and global prosperity.

The NCP has two key objectives to:

• promote the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises on responsible business conduct
• consider complaints about businesses’ conduct

More information about how the NCP delivers these objectives can be found on gov.uk

OECD peer reviews

Peer reviews are an opportunity for NCPs to learn from each other. In 2015, the United Kingdom made a G7 commitment for its NCP to be peer reviewed by other NCPs.

In December 2019, the OECD published its Peer Review of the United Kingdom’s NCP. The peer review assessed:

• the NCP against the OECD’s core criteria that NCPs should be visible, accessible, transparent and accountable
• the NCP’s complaint handling against the OECD’s criteria that NCP complaint handling should be impartial, predictable, equitable and compatible with the guidelines

The review provided findings and recommendations to the NCP to build on its existing strengths.

The review process included a visit to the United Kingdom in November 2018, which was conducted by NCPs from Switzerland and Spain. The OECD and South Korean NCP observed the process. Over 35 organisations from across government, civil society, business and trade unions inputted into the review to inform its findings. The NCP would like to thank everyone who contributed to the process.

The NCP welcomed the opportunity to be peer reviewed and to learn from other countries. It has championed peer reviews, having acted as a reviewer in six peer reviews of other NCPs.

Findings and recommendations of the peer review of the United Kingdom’s NCP

The review found that the United Kingdom has developed as one of the leading NCPs that has handled the largest number of complaints across NCPs globally and has conducted extensive promotional activities. It found that, since the setting up of the NCP in 2000, HM Government has designed a well-structured NCP, comprising a well-resourced team within the Department of International Trade (DIT), supported by an independent Steering Board with advisory and oversight functions.

The review made specific recommendations regarding areas for improvement for the NCP to build on its existing strengths on the three key areas assessed across all peer reviews:

• institutional arrangements
• promotion of the guidelines
• implementation of the complaint mechanism

UK government’s response to the review’s findings and recommendations is below.

1. Institutional arrangements

The review found the structure of the NCP to be strong and appropriate to fulfil its role set out in the Guidelines. The review found the Steering Board is widely recognised as a major asset of the NCP. To further build on the NCP’s strengths, the review made three recommendations regarding institutional arrangements.

The review found that there was a lack of clarity about the structure of the NCP. The review recommended the NCP provide greater clarity on its structure and function.

• UK government believes that the NCP can provide further information about its role and responsibilities. In January 2020 the NCP launched a new website and will include further information on its structure in due course.

The review found that there was a lack of clarity regarding the oversight and advice functions of the Steering Board. The review recommended that the NCP provide greater clarity on the Steering Board’s Terms of Reference (TOR) of these functions. The Steering Board has had established TORs since 2010.

• UK government is updating the Terms of Reference to provide greater clarity on the Board’s role.

The review found that the Chairman and secretariat arrangements of the Steering Board may reduce the confidence of stakeholders. The review recommended the NCP address the concerns raised by organisations. The Chairman of the Board is a Senior Civil Servant within DIT as the sponsor department of the NCP. However, the NCP operates independently.

• UK government is mindful of maintaining the independence of the Board from the NCP, and a separate Secretariat has been in place since 2019.

2. Promotion of the guidelines

The review found that the NCP has been active in its engagement and promotion of the guidelines and noted the high number of events the NCP has participated in over recent years.

The review found that the NCP has been a strong promoter of responsible business conduct through its support in the OECD’s development of guidance related to specific sectors including: the garment sector, agriculture sector and mining and extractive sector.

The review highlighted the NCP’s active role in providing support to other NCPs, particularly to countries who have recently established an NCP, participating in multiple peer reviews and peer learning events. The review noted that the NCP has strong structural connections with other parts of government that lead on responsible business conduct through government representation on its Steering Board.

To further improve the NCP’s promotion of the guidelines the review made four findings and recommendations:

1) The Review found that the level of awareness of the guidelines is high amongst larger organisations but less so amongst other organisations. The review recommended that the NCP strengthen its engagement with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

• The NCP already has a plan in place to promote responsible business conduct to businesses, trade unions and NGOs that it will continue to deliver, noting the recommendation to increase its engagement to SMEs.

2) The review found that the NCP does not systematically measure awareness of the guidelines and recommended it do so. HM Government notes that systematically measuring stakeholder awareness of the guidelines is not a requirement of the guidelines, however it accepts it is an accepted part of government communications activities.

• The NCP will consider relevant monitoring and evaluation as part of the delivery of its promotional activities.

3) The review found that the NCP’s website is informative but not user-friendly. The review recommended that as far as possible the NCP should improve the structure and navigability of its website.

• In January 2020, the NCP launched a new website as part of Gov.uk and is continuing to consider ways to improve its functionality for users, consistent with wider government guidelines to have plain English content.

4) The review found that awareness of the NCP is strong amongst government departments with a structural connection to the NCP but less known amongst other departments and it could improve awareness beyond the existing Steering Board representation.

• The NCP already promotes responsible business conduct across government but will build on these efforts to further raise awareness.

3. Implementing the complaints mechanism

The review found that the NCP has handled the largest number of complaints across the NCP network, 54 complaints since 2000. It found that the NCP has advanced rules of procedures in relation to its handling of complaints, which have been continuously improved, increasing the accessibility and predictability of its complaints process.

The review highlighted the NCP’s best practice in:

• publishing all initial assessments and final statements of complaints
• offering the services of professional mediators
• issuing statements about if a business has operated in line with the guidelines
• offering the possibility to have a complaint reviewed by its Steering Board
• regularly conducting follow ups on recommendations and agreements

To further improve on this the review made four recommendations:

1) The review found that some organisations viewed the NCP’s Initial Assessment criteria as challenging and should in future interpret the guidelines in a broad manner wherever possible.

• The NCP will continue to base its initial assessments on the criteria laid out in the guidelines.

2) The review found that although the NCP makes use of external expertise in its complaints handling, it could do so in a more systematic way.

• The NCP already uses external expertise as required, but is developing a more systematic approach to accessing this expertise in handling complaints.

3) The review found that although the NCP’s procedural review function was a unique strength of the NCP’s complaint handling, there was lack of clarity regarding the exact scope of this function.

• The NCP already has established written procedures for its review function, which outline the scope of procedural reviews. However, the NCP will consider ways to communicate the review function more effectively to organisations and parties to complaints.

4) Finally, the review noted that the NCP does not name parties to complaints that are not progressed beyond the Initial Assessment stage and suggested the NCP review its procedures to ensure that they align with the latest developments across NCPs.

• The NCP acknowledges that its rules of procedure were last comprehensively reviewed in 2015 and will continue to periodically update them to reflect recent trends in complaint handling across the global NCP network, where it is right for Britain.

Next steps

The NCP represents the United Kingdom on the OECD Working Party for Responsible Business Conduct (OECD WPRBC), which has a mandate to promote responsible business conduct and the Guidelines. The NCP will report to the OECD WPRBC on its progress on implementing of review findings and recommendations in late 2020.

The Minister will deposit the Peer Review Report and this response from HM Government in the libraries of both Houses of Parliament.