The UK government has launched a new ‘ambitious vision’ for corporate social responsibility, with five priority areas for action. Yet the public remains confused and concerned about the private sector’s role in society.
The UK government issued its second Business and Society Corporate Social Responsibility report on May 14, only to have the minister in charge reshuffled to another department two weeks later. The report summarises current policies and details the regulatory instruments presently employed to galvanise greater social responsibility. The government’s stated aim is to work in partnership with business and community organisations to encourage CSR while ensuring that regulation and financial frameworks do not stifle CSR activities. No new initiatives were launched, although developments over the last year such as the company law review, the community development fund, and the payroll giving scheme are listed. Accompanying the report are three associated research studies focusing on:
business investment in under-served markets;
managing and communicating CSR;
engaging SMEs in community and social issues.
Stephen Timms MP is the new minister with responsibility for corporate social responsibility, taking over from Douglas Alexander MP, who is moving up to Minister of State at the Cabinet Office. DTI on 020 7215 5978 (http://www.societyandbusiness.gov.uk)
A European framework on CSR came a step closer to seeing the light of day on May 30, after the European Parliament approved a resolution on corporate social responsibility, in response to the Commission’s Green Paper of July 2001. Suggestions of mandatory reporting were defeated in favour of a voluntary approach, but with proposals for a ‘EU multi-stakeholder CSDR platform’ and a possible ombudsman to oversee European enterprises working in developing countries. The Parliament’s report will inform the Commission’s next communication on the subject, expected in late June 2002, and builds pressure for a Europe-wide approach to social and environmental reporting. Contact Constanze Beckerhoff, EP, on 00 32 2 28 44302 (http://www.europa.eu.int)
The Home Office is aiming to ‘lead by example’ by launching a Race Equality Scheme. Announced on April 25, the focus is on promoting race equality and eliminating discrimination in the department and its agencies including the Prison Service and the Forensic Science Service.
The move follows a survey by She Magazine and the Commission for Racial Equality, which finds that two in three British women believe race can limit career choice and career progression. Published on April 3, the survey shows that only half of the country’s women believe Britain to be a society based on equal opportunity. ContactJonathan Lane, Home Office, on 020 7273 4486 (http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk)
British companies are moving away from seeking to influence public policy through direct political donations, choosing instead to sponsor thinktanks, join government task forces or hire former ministerial aides, according to a survey of FTSE 100 companies by the Financial Times on April 3. Contact Rosemary Bennett, FT, on 020 7873 3000 (http://www.ft.com)
COMMENT:
The UK government has launched a new ‘ambitious vision’ for corporate social responsibility, with five priority areas for action. Yet the public remains confused and concerned about the private sector’s role in society.
Publication of the government’s CSR review would have been a perfect time to respond to the Company Law Review and its call for a modest broadening of the scope of corporate reporting. Submitted a year ago last July, the DTI is apparently still studying it (slow reading is an acquired art in Whitehall). Meanwhile the call for mandatory reporting grows – as we went to press, a group of backbench MPs published a Corporate Responsibility Bill to do this and more. Pure kite-flying, of course, but the minister who will now have to respond is Steven Timms, the very man who as pensions minister brought in the new disclosure rule on pension funds’ CSR policies. Could prove interesting.
As it is, five years into Gordon Brown’s chancellorship, now is a good time to take stock of the government’s understanding of the role of business in society. Think back to the months before the 1997 general election, and Labour’s concern to show it was not antibusiness. Remember Tony Blair’s all too- brief flirtation with the stakeholder economy. What’s changed?
Most welcome is the continued encouragement to participate in community involvement, such as the new tax relief for in-kind donations of medicines and the payroll giving incentives. Also welcome is a new departure, the Community Investment Tax Credit which moves the focus from donations to investment in the economic drivers of community benefits.
Welcome too is the understanding that CSR applies to all bodies corporate, not just private companies – the public sector ‘leading by example’ as the CSR report puts it, on HR policies, sustainable development, volunteering and procurement. That said, public sector practice is still a long way short of the sort of organisation-wide management, measurement and reporting systems urged onto private companies.
COMMENTS