Oral Answers to Questions

Ivan Lewis Excerpts

Wednesday 12th June 2013 Commons Chamber

[Justine Greening]

My right hon. Friend is right that the timetable is ambitious and that is why we need to put the political momentum behind it that the G8 meeting can bring. The work that the OECD is doing has been commissioned by the G20 and it shows that if we are to reach a sustainable solution, leading economies and world leaders must come together. That is precisely why we have put the subject on our G8 agenda.

[Mr Ivan Lewis (Bury South) (Lab)]

The Prime Minister and the Secretary of State have said that the main objective of this weekend’s summit on tax and transparency and next week’s G8 meeting is for G8 countries to put their houses in order. That would strengthen the moral authority of the G8 and send a strong message to the rest of the world that the time has come to get serious about tax dodging. Will the Secretary of State ask the Chancellor today to bolster the Prime Minister’s moral authority and undertake an urgent review of the changes he made to the UK’s controlled foreign company rules, which are estimated to have cost developing countries £4 billion in lost tax revenue?

[Justine Greening]

I should have thought that the hon. Gentleman would ask me about the success of the G8 event on nutrition we held last Saturday, which saw huge progress on providing funding for that issue. Let me answer the question he has asked, however. I reassure him that we are taking a structured approach to the discussions at the G8. We are looking at addressing tax avoidance—in other words, dealing with the problem. We are looking at developing better approaches to tax evasion—in other words, once the problems happen we need to ensure that we can sort them out. We are also looking at how we can ensure that developing countries, once they have made progress, are in a position to collect tax. Our Government has put the question on the agenda and I think the hon. Gentleman should congratulate us on that.

[Mr Lewis]

I do not know about tax dodging but the Secretary of State is getting a reputation for question dodging—we will try this one, Mr Speaker. The Government have identified the public registration of beneficial company owners as one of their top priorities for the G8. There can be no excuse for this basic information about company directors being shrouded in secrecy. Does that remain the Government’s priority? Will she confirm that if they are unable to secure agreement, the UK will take unilateral steps on the issue of public registration?

[Justine Greening]

We have made beneficial ownership one of the key elements of our G8 agenda, and it is right to do so. I do not recall the hon. Gentleman’s Government particularly pushing on the issue during their 13 years in office. I can assure him that the best way to make a difference for developing countries is to get international agreement. That is what they want and that is why we are trying to get it.