This snapshot, taken on 26/07/2008, shows web content selected for preservation by The National Archives. External links, forms and search boxes may not work in archived websites.
Douglas Alexander MP - Former Minister of State for E-Commerce and CompetitivenessCorporate Social Responsibility Launch |
 |
|
| (Left DTI 29/5/02) | |
| It's a real pleasure to be launching the Government's second Report on Corporate Social Responsibility. I am particularly pleased to welcome onto the platform Baroness Greengross and Geoffery Bush.
The Government's aim is not just to observe what is going on in CSR, or to rehearse traditional arguments. This paper seeks to extend the debate. It reports on substantive action on key topics. It sets out a strategy for Government support for CSR. It is also truly a product of joined-up Government, and I want to pay warm tribute to the support and contribution of all the other Government Departments who have been involved. I am pleased that many representatives of Government Departments are present today. I want to acknowledge the fine work of the Inter Departmental Group on CSR over the last year, ensuring the co-ordination of CSR at working level right across Government. This is in addition to the great help we have received from businesses, NGOs, community and academic organisations throughout the year. I have been genuinely delighted to have CSR as one of my Ministerial responsibilities. CSR is exciting because it offers ways of achieving economic, social and environmental benefits at the same time – hitting all 3 elements of the so-called "triple bottom line". Many businesses as well as non-profit organisations accept the need for responsible behaviour as a matter of principle; but they also report that CSR can help build brand value, foster customer loyalty, motivate their staff, and contribute to a good reputation among a wide range of stakeholders. At the same time, their involvement can have an immensely positive impact on social and environmental issues, and contribute to the goals of sustainable development that are vital for the whole planet. CSR offers an approach that gets away from the old view that economic and social goals must somehow always be in conflict. And a successful society needs business, the voluntary sector, and public bodies all working together; a kind of triple alliance to deliver that triple bottom line. At the same time it is essential to remain practical. In a very competitive world, CSR needs to have a genuine economic foundation. It must assist, not compromise, performance and it needs to be guided by proven experience, rather than hopes or dogma. But it must also stimulate genuinely responsible behaviours that make a real difference. Recent events make it crystal clear that CSR cannot be just a sort of corporate smoke screen. They also underline that responsibility does not stop at national boundaries. Special flash points include human rights and environmental impacts in developing countries and a responsible organisation has to be responsible abroad as well as at home. The Government is keen to encourage CSR. There are really just two main challenges. The first is promoting CSR, so that more organisations adopt socially and environmentally responsible practices. The second is mainstreaming – getting past skin-deep attitudes and ensuring that responsible behaviour indeed becomes an integral part of the way organisations work. If there are two main challenges, there are also two main ways that Government can help.
I will address the regulatory and fiscal aspects first. For any organisation, responsible behaviour starts with legal compliance. The UK benefits from a tried and tested framework of laws and regulations on social and environmental issues. To ensure it remains current, this framework is constantly evolving and can be immensely powerful in making CSR part of normal practice in all types of organisations. But legislation and fiscal powers are not magic charms. Excessive intervention risks distorting or stifling progress rather than fostering innovation; but intelligent legislation can play an enabling role, and fiscal incentives can tip the balance in favour of new approaches. So we now have new content in our pensions legislation, which requires funds report whether they have any particular ethical investment policies, and to state what those policies are. This has been widely recognised as a very good example of "light touch" legislation, with similar approaches being adopted in France and Germany. We also have proposals within the current review of company law which would also require companies to disclose significant social and environmental issues and those matters are now being considered by Ministers. On fiscal incentives, the Government has boosted payroll giving by funding a £2 million promotional campaign, backed by a special ten per cent supplement on all donations for three years. As a result, Payroll Giving donations have increased from £37 million a year and are expected to exceed the campaign target of £60 million a year, a year earlier than projected. Half a million people are now taking advantage of this scheme, which is delivering real value to a wide range of charities. The most recent budget also announced a £20 million investment in a new Community Development Venture Fund, which was launched with the Chancellor a little earlier today. This is in addition to an important new Community Investment Tax Credit worth 25% over five years to stimulate business involvement in deprived neighbourhoods. This is just one of the topics where we have been most active in the second aspect of Government engagement - working in partnership with others to catalyse CSR action. Now time simply does not permit me to cover the range of partnership action over the last year. I hope you will study some of these approaches in the Report. I will just choose some highlights. The Government produced new General Guidelines on Environmental Reporting in November 2001 and encouraged CSR to help improve adult basic skills. It is also backing social enterprises, volunteering, and community arts projects (which are often forgotten but were valued at more than £150 million last year); and there is a whole range of regional projects led by the Devolved Administrations and Regional Development Authorities all around the UK. To help small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), the Government's Small Business Service has produced a handbook for SMEs and SME Advisors - as well as a benchmarking module to guide SMEs on good practice. We have also backed collaborative programmes with the British Chambers of Commerce, the Institute of Directors, and Business in the Community including the extension of schemes for "business brokers" and a "Community Mark" , new research into SME motivations for responsible behaviour, and collaborative work with CSR Europe on a cross-European SME reporting toolkit. Meanwhile the Government has also been active supporting international CSR, including the work of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and Organisation for Economic Co-ordination and Development (OECD) which address issues such as worker's rights in producer countries. This is or course in addition to our continued backing of the Ethical Trading Initiative whose corporate members include high street names with a combined turnover of almost £100bn – working together to bring international procurement in line with ILO principles. And all this has been on top of last year's vital response to the European Commission's Green Paper on CSR, which discussed items that could potentially lead to Europe-wide regulation. The EC plans to publish a further communication on CSR in July 2002, and we remain strongly involved. We would like to think that we have been firing on all cylinders on CSR over the last year. We don't have all the answers and CSR does of course remain a journey we have only just begun; but we are making progress. To maintain the momentum, the UK Government has articulated its goals for CSR and its strategy for driving the agenda forward in the document we are publishing today. Our vision would be to see private and public sector organisations in the UK take account of their economic, social and environmental impact, and take complementary action to address key challenges based on their core competences – locally, regionally, nationally, and indeed internationally. Our strategy to achieve that links with our approach to sustainable development and has five key planks. We aim to:
Strategy is meaningless without specific action. We aim to
Of course much remains to be done. There are still many organisations that are not adopting responsible practices, and Government does not have all the answers. But there is an increasing recognition among organisations of all types that CSR makes sense. We should aim to maintain this momentum as CSR can simultaneously benefit economic, social and environmental issues – which are vital for people as well as for the planet. The Government aims to support this process through a strategic approach and a focus on the really key issues. I believe this Report that we are launching today is a significant step forward. I commend it to you. |
|
|
|
|
Other speeches by Douglas Alexander MP - Former Minister of State for E-Commerce and Competitiveness
(the following are available from the archive) |
|
