This action plan is the UK’s national implementation plan for the UN Guiding Principles. It embodies our commitment to protect human rights by helping UK companies understand and manage human rights. It sends a clear message of our expectation about business behaviour, both in the UK and overseas. The Guiding Principles are intended to apply the world over and we will work for widespread international uptake and implementation of them. We call on businesses and civil society to help us give effect to this action plan. And we call on our international partners to give effect in their own countries to the Guiding Principles, in the pursuit of improved human rights and sustainable business environments the world over.