Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, which government department has responsibility for the cross-agency taskforce established to examine the Panama Papers.

The taskforce will report jointly to the Chancellor and to the Home Secretary. It will provide a progress report later this year which will set out the taskforce’s initial assessment of the information in the Panama papers and proposed actions for further analysis and strategy for pursuing any evidence found of wrongdoing and regulatory breaches.

The taskforce is jointly led by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and the National Crime Agency (NCA), with other partners including the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and Financial Conduct Authority. The NCA, HMRC and others already regularly work together to tackle serious and organised financial crime of many types.

The UK multi-agency taskforce has begun analytical work on all the data published by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), in addition to continuing to develop a wide range of other intelligence which includes more than 700 HMRC leads with a connection to Panama. As part of this work, the task force is currently analysing and reviewing the names and addresses published by the ICIJ with alleged links to the UK and Mossack Fonseca.

While the sensitivity of the work means that it will not be possible to give a running commentary on any investigations, or number of investigations, Parliament will be kept updated on any significant developments.