Primark is expected this week to step up efforts to ensure clothes are sourced more ethically at the discount fashion chain after allegations over its supply network. Paul Lister, company secretary at Associated British Foods which owns the chain, acknowledged the group needed to catch up with some competitors, but said it had taken a number of initiatives to improve Primark’s ethical sourcing…The Ethical Trading Initiative, an alliance to improve working conditions in global supply chains, which is investigating Primark, welcomed the retailer’s moves as “positive developments”…Mr Lister said Primark expected to carry out about 1,000 audits of primarily overseas suppliers this year. Audits, mostly unannounced, would be carried out by third parties, and would look at areas such as health and safety, that workers were of a legal age and that they were being paid an adequate wage…Primark was training buyers to source more ethically, and instructing suppliers on what standards were expected.