“It should be when not if the crown dependencies are required to lift their veil of secrecy – they are at the heart of a global network of tax avoidance that costs poorer countries and regions $170 billion a year.
“Given the level of cross-party support in Parliament for action to make UK-linked tax havens more transparent the Government should allow MPs a vote on this as a matter of urgency.
“Transparency is needed sooner not later to prevent countries being deprived of revenue that could be used to fight poverty and fund schools and hospitals.”
\ Ends
Four UK-linked territories – Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, Jersey and the British Virgin Islands – were named as among the 15 worst corporate tax havens in the world, in Oxfam’s Tax Battles report published December 2016.