Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether the Government's new tax treaty with Lesotho is the first UK tax treaty with (a) any country or (b) a low or middle-income country to include a mandatory binding arbitration clause.

This is not the case. In addition to Lesotho, the UK has mandatory binding arbitration provisions in tax treaties signed with: Albania, Algeria, Armenia, Bahrain, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Iceland, Japan, Kosovo, Liechtenstein, Netherlands, Norway, Qatar, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tajikistan, Ukraine and Uruguay.