Jackdaw Gas Field

Lord Sikka Excerpts

Tuesday 27th October 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Sikka (Lab)]

My Lords, as a former accountant of a major international oil company, I am highly sceptical of the tax numbers floated in this debate and generally. What steps are the Government taking to ensure that profits from Jackdaw are not shifted from the UK to a low or no-tax jurisdiction through transfer pricing strategies, which are already failing the tax authorities? Shell, which is a part-owner of Jackdaw, is an absolute master of shifting profits from the UK to elsewhere and thereby dodging UK taxes. What assurances can the Minister offer the House that this would be curbed?

[Baroness Curran (Lab)]

You do not get challenging questions only from the Cross-Benchers. As an accounting professor, the noble Lord knows quite a lot about this. Of course, we would not want to see excessive profit, manipulation or improper activity within this field. We will be trying to ensure that investment is properly managed.

The noble Lord just put on the record the behaviour of certain companies and the consequences of that. I am not personally versed in that, but it is something I will look at. Obviously, there are limits to what we can do with private companies. When I was at the Dispatch Box last week, the Tories and the noble Lord were in unison and in one voice; I suspect that on this question they are not. I will come back to the noble Lord.