Civil servants in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills are giving British companies the all-clear to press ahead with contracts even though they are likely to lead to human rights abuses, the foreign affairs select committee will be told on Tuesday.

The all-party committee is investigating whether the Foreign Office has downgraded its commitment to defending human rights in favour of a more commercial and trade-driven approach.

MPs on the committee decided to hold the brief inquiry after Sir Simon McDonald, permanent secretary at the Foreign Office, said human rights no longer had the “profile” within his department they had in the past.

Amnesty International, due to give evidence to the committee, claims a little-known UK National Contact Point (NCP) in BIS has been charged with handling any complaints that a private sector contract conflicts with the UK’s human rights commitments.

It says the panel of civil servants is “unqualified to make complex human rights judgments and lacking the resources to properly investigate claims put to them”.

The NCP is a non-statutory body but has to judge human rights complaints under guidelines for multinationals prepared by the OECD.

Amnesty claims the system of handling complaints is “inconsistent, unreliable, biased towards businesses and out of kilter with the standards it is supposed to uphold”.



The NCP partially accepted a complaint against Formula One for organising a race in Bahrain. Photograph: Hamad I Mohammed/Reuters/Corbis

The group found that 60% of human rights complaints in the past five years have been rejected without full investigation, leaving individuals and whole communities at greater risk of abuse. A further 12% have been referred to other NCPs that exist in 45 other countries. It was also taking more than six months on average for a complaint to complete its initial assessment, and longer complaints can take as long as two years.

Amnesty also claims the UK insists that complainants put forward a level of evidence higher than that required by the OECD guidelines and higher than that which the companies are required to provide in their defence.

Some complaints are rejected at the initial assessment stage simply because the evidence is in the public domain, the group said. The NCP has no power to require compensation or enforce a change in a company’s conduct.

Peter Frankental, Amnesty International UK’s business and human rights expert, said: “Of the 25 human rights complaints in the last four years, only one was fully accepted by the NCP – this was against the technology company Gamma, which was selling surveillance software to Bahrain that was used to target human rights activists, some of whom were alleged to have been arrested and tortured.

“The NCP recommended that Gamma participate in best business practice schemes and make its communications more transparent, and that it provide remedy for victims of abuses in which its products played a role.”

Six cases were partially accepted, including one against Formula One for organising the race in Bahrain in the midst of ongoing human rights violations, which the complainants – Bahrain Watch and Americans for Democracy and Human Rights in Bahrain – said would lead to further abuses.

A complaint against G4S found the company “technically in breach” of human rights guidelines for providing equipment used at Israeli military checkpoints and in prisons, which the complainant – Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights – said contributed to serious human rights violations, including against children.

The Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman, Tom Brake, said “Strict monitoring of the human rights impact of UK companies’ activities abroad is essential for company and UK PLC credibility.

“This scrutiny cannot be left to unqualified civil servants. The National Contact Points must now rethink who conducts its investigations and switch to using staff experienced in handling human rights issues.”

