Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of preventing businesses that are registered in tax havens from accessing covid-19 related financial support.

The Government’s unprecedented package of support has been targeted at the businesses and individuals who most need assistance. Those businesses that most need support sometimes include foreign companies who employ people and have property in the UK.

The Government continues to be at the forefront of global action to tackle tax avoidance, with a series of robust measures in place to tackle profit shifting arrangements.

Since 2010, the Government has introduced over 100 new measures to tackle tax non-compliance, and HMRC’s compliance activities have protected over £200 billion that would have otherwise gone unpaid. That is the right way to challenge avoidance; not by denying support to British workers, who pay their taxes and would otherwise lose their jobs.