Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if she will expand the remit of the Illicit Finance Summit to include tax abuse.

Tackling illicit finance at home and internationally remains a key priority for this Government. We recognise the role of those professional enablers who exploit the integrity of their professions to facilitate serious and organised crime and corruption. That is why the upcoming Illicit Finance Summit will focus on strengthening global enforcement against illicit finance, including forging new partnerships to disrupt such professional enablers and take the profit out of crime and corruption. By driving greater transparency, stronger enforcement and higher global standards, we will also make it harder to hide or misuse money, including through tax evasion. We will confirm details of attendance at the Illicit Finance Summit in the normal way in due course.

We regularly raise our expectations on publicly accessible and legitimate interest access registers of beneficial ownership with Overseas Territories (OTs) and Crown Dependencies, and I most recently discussed this with OT leaders and representatives on 16 July.