Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jo Cox and Desmond Swayne

Wednesday 4th May 2016 Commons Chamber

[Jo Cox (Batley and Spen) (Lab)]

5. What recent assessment she has made of the effect of low levels of financial transparency in the Crown dependencies and British overseas territories on the economies of developing countries.

[The Minister of State, Department for International Development (Mr Desmond Swayne)]

Through our presidency of the G8 in 2013 and through the G20 we have led on assisting developing countries in strengthening their tax regimes, and tackling avoidance and evasion. UK overseas territories have agreed to furnish our tax and law enforcement agencies with company beneficial ownership information.

[Mr Swayne]

We are light years ahead of where we were, and indeed of any ambition expressed by previous Administrations. Full automatic exchange of taxpayer account information will be available from September this year, and company beneficial ownership information will be available to our tax authorities by June next year.

[Jo Cox]

I acknowledge the progress made by previous Governments and this one on this issue, but is it not time, in advance of the anti-corruption summit, to require overseas territories and Crown dependencies to provide public registers of beneficial ownership?

[Mr Swayne]

We have advanced a huge amount by agreement and leadership, not by having recourse to compulsion. The overseas territories are now well in advance of many of our major trading partners. It is better to proceed by agreement. Much of the information will be available through the initiative for automatic exchange of beneficial ownership registers, to which 33 countries have now signed up.