Government to pressure British firms on human rights overseas

We've seen this week how British firms are trying to manage the dilemma of working in countries with very cheap labour and keeping standards high.

There is pressure from consumers and also now, it seems, increasing pressure from the government.

• Read: Primark's compensation pledge is a significant move

In the next few months we've been told that the government is going to introduce a policy to require companies to do more to respect human rights whichever country they work in.

The Foreign Office has told ITV News:

It is not yet clear exactly what this will mean for UK companies, and if it were to translate into new rules and regulations there could be concern from the business community.

• Read: Behind the walls of Bangladesh's garment factories

Responding to pressure from their customers is one thing, pressure from politicians is another. But it seems the government is intent on applying pressure.

In a country like Bangladesh where British firms operate there is also money being spent on trying to improve the country.

• Read: Garment factory workers' families wait for compensation

Although it is a source for cheap clothes for many millions of British consumers, it is also somewhere where their taxes end up too.

Over the next four years the Department for International Development will spend nearly a billion pounds in Bangladesh. And a lot of that effort is focused on trying to improve the garment trade.

Their spokesman here, Sarah Cooke, told me: