UK Defends Energy Company Over Slave-Made Goods Concerns

LONDON — The U.K. government has defended its publicly-owned energy company, days after POLITICO revealed Great British Energy was still funding firms that could not rule out exposure to slave-made goods.

“We are tackling forced labor where we find it in global supply chains, and we want to go further,” Energy Minister Michael Shanks told MPs when questioned in the House of Commons Tuesday.

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero promised last spring that the government-backed GB Energy would “secure” supply chains free of forced labor. But POLITICO revealed last month that the company has since funded firms that cannot guarantee they are free of that risk.

The concerns relate to solar panels imported from China, which dominates global solar manufacturing. Campaigners and MPs accuse Beijing of forced labor abuses against the Uyghur population in the country’s northern Xinjiang province, including in solar manufacturing.

Of seven companies given contracts to install solar panels on British schools last fall — funded partly by GB Energy — five could not guarantee there was no risk of forced labor in their supply chains when asked by POLITICO.

A sixth firm did not respond to multiple requests for that guarantee. A seventh said it had “ruled out” the risk, although that firm obtains its solar panels from a Chinese-based manufacturer which said the “risk remains present” in its own supply chains.

A government spokesperson said at the time there were “strict procurement controls in place to ensure that any solar panels are free from forced labour, as far as possible.”

GB Energy “will be a leader in how we tackle this,” Shanks said Tuesday, under questioning from Conservative MP Bradley Thomas. Shanks added that GB Energy has “set up a function within, to look at sustainable supply chains and to make sure they're free from [forced labor].”

The clean energy company is central to government plans to scale up the country’s solar capacity as ministers bid to drive down energy bills and rapidly shift the country away from fossil fuels.

But opposition MPs and some Labour backbenchers have warned that the rush to install clean power by 2030 leaves the U.K. reliant on importing panels from China. The Chinese government denies allegations of forced labor in its solar manufacturing.