The Big Dress focuses on the third of our five Trade Justice Campaign goals, which is 'For multinational companies to be held accountable for how they treat their workers and impact on the places in which they invest.'

We believe the voluntary approach to Corporate Responsibility has failed. If rules, consistency and transparency are good enough for the financial aspects of a business, then they're good enough for people and the environment.

The Government have begun to acknowledge this by making some important improvements to UK company law. Thanks to your determined campaigning and faithful prayers as part of the Big Dress Campaign, the Companies Bill has now become law (as the Companies Act 2006). In the Act, the UK Government has recognised that UK companies need to be made more accountable for the impact of their activities in the UK and overseas. This is an important first step towards stronger laws for greater accountability of multinational companies and is a fantastic achievement showing that we really can make a difference!

There is still a long way to go, but we have made a good start. There is a lot of praying and campaigning to do to keep up the pressure to ensure companies take responsibility for their impact on people and planet:

• Working with the Trade Justice Movement (TJM) and the Corporate Responsibility Coalition (CORE), and other allies across the world we will push for regulation of multinational companies at a European and global level.

• We will also be part of monitoring how the Companies Act 2006 works in practice and targeting its weaknesses.