The Government has launched a consultation on corporate social responsibility (CSR) and plans to draw up a framework for action by the end of the year. This will set out the UK’s ambitions, priorities and vision for CSR and the actions that government, corporate and wider society need to take to achieve them.

The consultation closes on the 27^th September 2013. It is calling for views over the next three months and says: “We would ask that you be ambitious in your responses and help us to realise the benefits corporate responsibility can have for everyone.”

The consultation asks for views on the main barriers to businesses contributing more to social outcomes and what Government could do to make it easier for companies to support social initiatives.

The consultation also looks at alignment with global corporate responsibility approaches, seeking to gain a common understanding of CSR and a greater adoption of CSR practice by businesses, which takes into account international principles and guidelines.

The Government also wants to encourage more businesses to report on their CSR activity in a consistent and comparable manner, including using a set of voluntary metrics, which could be made public in annual reports.

Another strand of the consultation looks at supply chain management. It asks if companies should be obliged to be more responsible for actions within their supply chain and if so, how this can be achieved. 

The consultation response form is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/corporate-responsibility-call-for-views