Publish What You Pay UK welcomes renewed UK Government commitment to extractives transparency
Publish What You Pay (PWYP) UK has welcomed the conclusions of the UK Government’s Post-Implementation Review (PIR) of initial reporting by oil, gas and mining companies under the UK’s Reports on Payments to Governments Regulations...
The UK Government’s review report [...] has found that the policy of requiring extractive companies to report their payments to governments country by country and project by project is “on course to achieve its objectives”...
Importantly, the UK review has found that “this type of reporting does not disadvantage company business interests, including their relationships with governments”.
“The [...] findings clearly refute claims made by [...] US oil companies Exxon and Chevron, that extractives transparency disclosures harm business interests...,” said [...] PWYP UK Coordinator...
“Since 2015 [...] UK-based and UK-listed oil, gas and mining companies including BHP Billiton, BP, Gazprom, Glencore, Rio Tinto, Shell and Sinopec have published tax, royalty and other payments... The UK Government report clearly recognises that much good work has been done and reaffirms the UK’s international policy commitment in this area.”
No strengthening of the regulations is currently envisaged by the review report, despite the fact that civil society urged attention to minor weaknesses in the reporting requirements and online reporting tools.