Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 29 April 2020 to Question 39777 on Multinational Companies: Disclosure of Information, what discussions he has had with the OECD on the (a) accuracy and reliability of country-by-country reporting data and (b) the UK's consent for the aggregate data to be published by the OECD.

Officials attended OECD meetings on this topic over the course of the last year, where data quality issues concerning the aggregated and anonymised CbCR statistics were discussed in detail.

One of those issues was the distortive effect of the inclusion of intragroup dividends receivable within CbCR profit, where globally multinational groups had been taking different approaches in the absence of OECD guidance.

An outcome of those discussions was the publication of new OECD CbCR guidance which clarifies the approach that should be taken by multinationals in relation to intragroup dividends when preparing their future Country-by-Country Reports.

This is an important step in increasing the reliability and consistency of future CbCR data.

However, it does not address the data quality and consistency issues in previously submitted Country-by-Country Reports, and the Government has been clear that it will not consent to publication of aggregated UK CbCR information unless those issues are addressed.