Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they have any plans to prohibit CDC Group from investing in companies based in tax havens or linked to companies based in tax havens.
Answered by Baroness Sugg
There is no internationally recognised definition of a “tax haven.” CDC respects the tax policies of governments and supports their ability to tax. Whilst the development of domestic tax policy is the responsibility of governments, CDC requires its investee companies to approach tax is a responsible manner. CDC requires that: investee companies should be compliant, should not engage in base erosion and profit shifting, and should not engage in egregious tax planning.
Wherever possible, CDC invests directly into the country in which an investee company is located. If CDC invests through an intermediate country, it does so only if the country is compliant with international tax transparency standards as monitored by the OECD’s Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Tax information.
CDC’s policy on the payment of taxes and the use of offshore financial centres is available on CDCs website. This policy has been agreed with DFID and is reviewed annually.
Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the announcement that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Department for International Develolpment will merge, what will be the effect on the Independent Commission for Aid Impact.
Answered by Baroness Sugg
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office will be accountable to parliament for how it spends UK aid. We remain committed to full transparency in our aid spending and there will continue to be parliamentary and independent scrutiny of the aid budget – the form this takes following the merger will be set out in due course.