Dan McGrail CEO of Great British Energy has written to the House of Commons Joint Committee on Human Rights with an update on its approach to tackling forced labour in supply chains.

The potential use of forced labour in the energy supply chain, and renewables in particular, has been a long running saga. In April 2025, the then Energy Secretary Ed Miliband announced a U-turn to legally block the state-owned GBE from using solar panels, wind turbines, or batteries tied to Chinese forced labour or human trafficking in Xinjiang.

McGrail notes, in the letter, that, “we [GBE] have made significant progress over the last 12 months and, whilst there is more to do to realise our ambitions, I am proud of the progress GBE have made to date.”

Some key achievements in the last 12 months include the establishing of the Ethical Supply Chains Unit, incorporating responsible business conduct into live deals and grant funding, from ESG due diligence, to monitoring processes and action plans, through to incentives that reward stronger ethical practice. GBE will publish our Modern Slavery Statement in the autumn

Supply chains are complex and at times opaque in nature and can intersect with regions and state-led programmes associated with human rights abuses and state-imposed forced labour, and UN reporting highlights elevated risks in these geographies. As a result, GBE expects to expand its activities to include acquiring and owning energy projects, which should allow greater control and oversight of contracted suppliers across the value chain, which would mean a switch away from imported systems and material to more ‘home-grown’ products.

Here, GBE sees an opportunity to accelerate UK supply chain innovation, supporting the growth of UK clean energy manufacturing and supply chains, citing its recent investment into Naked Energy as an example.


The move may also help allay some fears over the extent of potential foreign control of electronic devices embedded in vital parts of infrastructure.

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