Asked by: Lord Luce (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what criteria govern the regulation of financial services in Crown Dependencies and British Overseas Territories.
Answered by Lord O'Neill of Gatley
The regulation of financial services are domestic responsibilities of the governments of the Crown Dependencies and the Overseas Territories. In line with its status Gibraltar complies with applicable EU law. The Crown Dependencies and other British Overseas Territories are encouraged by the UK to meet internationally agreed standards.
Asked by: Lord Luce (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government in what way the criteria for the regulation of financial services vary between the UK and British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies.
Answered by Lord O'Neill of Gatley
The regulation of financial services are domestic responsibilities of the governments of the Crown Dependencies and the Overseas Territories. As part of the EU internal market for financial services, the UK Government and Government of Gibraltar regulate financial services in line with their own domestic and EU law. Other British Overseas Territories and the Crown Dependencies’ governments regulate financial services in line with their own domestic law, and are encouraged by the UK to meet internationally agreed standards.
Asked by: Lord Luce (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of which Crown Dependencies and British Overseas Territories, if any, fall short of the required standards for the regulation of their financial services.
Answered by Lord O'Neill of Gatley
The regulation of financial services are domestic responsibilities of the governments of the Crown Dependencies and the Overseas Territories. The Crown Dependencies and other British Overseas Territories are encouraged by the UK to meet internationally agreed standards and assessed according to the relevant international practice.
Asked by: Lord Luce (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they consider that United Kingdom Overseas Territories are maintaining adequate regulatory mechanisms for offshore financial services and the common reporting standards for automatic exchange of information across borders as required by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development; and whether they will provide a comparison on the extent to which each United Kingdom Overseas Territory conforms with the required standards.
Answered by Lord Deighton
The Overseas Territories are separate jurisdictions and each has their own independent supervisory authority responsible for ensuring their financial services meet regulatory standards. The Overseas Territories are subject to assessment by the international standard setter for anti-money laundering, the Financial Action Task Force. This looks specifically at the effectiveness of each jurisdiction’s regimes. The Territories are due their next assessments over the coming years and the results of these will be publicly available.
In 2013, the Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories agreed to begin bilateral automatic exchange of financial information for tax purposes with the UK in 2016, in respect of 2014 data. These were ground breaking agreements and are expected to recoup over £1 billion of unpaid tax.
The Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories also committed in 2013 to be early adopters of the new global standard for automatic exchange, joining the initiative launched by the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain and providing a lead to other jurisdictions. Along with the UK, in October 2014 the Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories signed the legal agreements under which exchange will begin with over 50 countries in 2017 and over 90 countries in 2018. These agreements, under which a wide range of information concerning financial accounts of UK tax residents will be passed to HMRC automatically each year, will significantly enhance the ability of HMRC to tackle offshore evasion.
Monitoring of implementation of the global standard of automatic tax information exchange will be undertaken in due course by the Global Forum as requested by G20 Finance Ministers. Written assessments of the extent to which Global Forum members meet the existing standard of tax information exchange on request are publically available on the Global Forum’s website.
Asked by: Lord Luce (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many tax information exchange agreements with other countries have been signed by Gibraltar; and whether they will report the outcome of the review by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development on exchange of information between Gibraltar and other countries.
Answered by Lord Deighton
Gibraltar has tax information exchange agreements in place with a total of 74 territories either through bilateral Tax Information Exchange Agreements (27), the OECD/Council of Europe multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters or EU Directive 2011/16/EU on Administrative Cooperation in the Field of Taxation.
The Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes Phase 2 Peer Review Report on Gibraltar was published on 29 October 2014[1]. A list of all exchange of information mechanisms in force in relation to Gibraltar can be found in Annex 2 to the Peer review Report.
[1] http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/taxation/global-forum-on-transparency-and-exchange-of-information-for-tax-purposes-peer-reviews-gibraltar-2014_9789264222885-en;jsessionid=1q7khes9636eo.x-oecd-live-01