Maya Forstater

i'm really sceptical of private initiatives & voluntary codes of conduct for businesses. i've never seen this improve outcomes - for labour, environment (& perhaps tax too?) isn't this a distraction from need for effective government legislation & international cooperation?

This is I think the only such initiative on tax. I don’t have much knowledge of similar initiatives in other areas - is it something that’s been studied?

YEAH! enough literature to fill a castle! the forest stewardship council is pretty similar: http://www.fsc-uk.org/en-uk  lots of parallel initiatives in global supply chains.

And if, hypothetically, I was incredibly lazy and already had a reading list with 72 papers on it, how would you summarise the complex literature in 140 characters?

Auditors claim to provide independent assurance But struggle to see what's going on inside So report management processes & systems (not the stuff that matters). None of this tackles the incentives driving non-compliance (in labour/environ) So abuses persist.

I think there are parallels & maybe lessons, but take care of assuming direct correspondence between roles, terms etc in the different domains - auditors, stds, race to the bottom etc. FTM I think made mistake of trying to replicate fairtrade biz model which doesn't quite fit

absolutely. i know nothing on tax. so lack enough knowledge to say it's the same. all i know is that private regulation, kitemarks etc dont seem to improve labour conditions in global supply chains.

Alice, I think the difference between FTM and some other accreditation schemes is we totally accept the limits of voluntary approach, and also see ultimate solution as legs and regs. So for eg, we supported Caroline Flint MP in amend of finance bill to force world first cbcr