Garment trade adjudicator

That this House notes that the purchasing practices of UK retailers has a direct impact on the workers who make clothes for fashion brands, who then re-sell those clothes onto consumers; laments the unfair purchasing practices of UK fashion brands, which causes job losses, poverty wages, excessive overtime and unsafe conditions for the people who make our clothes; believes that the time has come for a fashion watchdog, or garment trade adjudicator, so that all brands ensure that the way they do business treats their suppliers fairly; recognises that fashion retailers, owned by individual tycoons who tend to extract maximum profits and extravagant corporate salaries from the exploited labour of supply chain workers, are typically less responsible compared to giant grocery companies and food retailers; believes that, similar to the Groceries Code Adjudicator, the introduction of a garment trade adjudicator would likely ensure that payment terms to suppliers are fair; further believes that a garment trade adjudicator would have a positive impact on recourses for late order cancellations, delays in payments and unfair or illegal deductions, all of which have a knock-on effect on employment at supplier factories and the ability of suppliers to pay legal wages and provide secure employment; and calls on the Government to introduce a garment trade adjudicator to act as a fashion watchdog and tackle the scourge of garment industry exploitation in Leicester, across the UK and around the world.