Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential merit of the introduction of favourable financial grants to rebuild and diversify the economies of tax havens that are conditional on benchmarks on (a) transparency, (b) accountability and (c) cooperation to tackle offshore tax avoidance and evasion.

The Government has no plans to introduce such grants. The UK supports international efforts to tackle aggressive tax avoidance and evasion, and supports lists of non-co-operative jurisdictions for tax purposes in the OECD and EU to encourage jurisdictions to comply with relevant international tax standards. The UK also supports capacity building programmes to help jurisdictions implement these standards, including through the OECD’s Global Forum, the OECD’s Inclusive Framework on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting, and a dedicated capacity building unit in HMRC.