As set out in the published List of Ministers' Interests, Ministers are asked to declare their relevant interests in a number of categories. Of the areas Ministers are asked to give information about, this includes:

• their financial interests, including both assets and liabilities

• any blind trusts or blind management arrangements they have set up

• directorships and shareholdings

• investment properties

Such declarations are reviewed by the Permanent Secretary and the Independent Adviser on Ministerial Interests, and advice is provided accordingly. This advice includes whether an interest should be included in the public List of Ministerial Interests as part of the process of avoiding or mitigating any conflict of interest.

I am proud of the investment this country attracts from around the world. The right hon. and learned Gentleman talks about people from offshore investing in the UK, and I am absolutely thrilled to see we have had £12 billion of tech investment alone coming in over the last couple of months. It is possible that he is referring not to me but to some of the eight brilliant candidates who are currently vying for my job. Let me just tell him that any one of them would wipe the floor—[Interruption.]

Cut him some slack—faced with an uncertain future and a mortgage-sized decorator’s bill for what will soon be somebody else’s flat, I am not surprised the Prime Minister is careful not to upset any future employers. So here is an even simpler one: does he agree that offshore schemes can pose a risk because some people use them to avoid tax that they owe here?

Cut him some slack—faced with an uncertain future and a mortgage-sized decorator’s bill for what will soon be somebody else’s flat, I am not surprised the Prime Minister is careful not to upset any future employers. So here is an even simpler one: does he agree that offshore schemes can pose a risk because some people use them to avoid tax that they owe here?

To the best of my knowledge, everybody in this Parliament and everybody in this House pays their full whack of tax in this country.

Members across the House should cease this constant vilification of each other. I think people pay their fair share of taxes, and quite right.

Thanks to the tax yield we have had, we are able to support the people of this country in the way we are. We have been able to increase universal credit by £1,000, and from tomorrow we are putting £326 into the bank accounts of those who need it most. Thanks to the policies we have pursued, as I have just told the House, we have unemployment at or near record lows. That is what counts.

The Opposition are very happy to see people languish on benefits. We believe in getting people into good jobs, and I am looking for one.

The Prime Minister has been saying all week that he wants revenge on those who have wronged him. Here is an idea: if he really wants to hit them where it hurts, he should tighten the rules on tax avoidance. At the very least, does he agree that anyone running to be Prime Minister should declare where they and their family have been domiciled for tax purposes, and whether they have ever been a beneficiary of an offshore tax scheme?

This government is committed to making the UK a hostile place for illicit finance and economic crime. The Financial Action Task Force has found that the UK has one of the strongest systems in the world for combatting money laundering. However, as a global financial centre, we are determined to go further to crack down on dirty money and financial exploitation, to protect our security and prosperity.

We published a landmark public-private partnership Economic Crime Plan in 2019. The Plan outlines a comprehensive national response to economic crime, and sets out 52 actions being taken by both the public and private sectors to ensure the UK cannot be abused for economic crime.

A key part of going further is working with international partners to tackle cross-border illicit financial flows. In 2016, the UK became the first major economy in the world to implement a public register of company beneficial ownership – the People with Significant Control Register. In June 2021, the UK agreed, with G7 partners, on the importance of strengthening international standards on beneficial ownership, so we have the tools to prevent money laundering through corporate structures. The G7 agreed that beneficial ownership registries – like the UK’s pioneering People with Significant Control register – are a key part of this.

Regarding tax evasion, HMRC already has a great deal of information on individuals and companies that use offshore arrangements to hide money. Each year HMRC gathers tens of millions of items of data through intelligence-gathering, the acquisition of bulk data (including through international data exchange agreements), and through their own expert investigations. HMRC is looking closely at the information the ‎ICIJ has disclosed to see if it reveals anything new to their existing knowledge and investigations.

Through the network of overseas Posts, the FCDO is monitoring the consequences of several of the stories associated with the recent Pandora Papers leaks. We understand some investigations are being considered in some countries, but it is too early to say who, if anyone, might ultimately be found guilty of bribery, corruption or tax violations. Irrespective of this, the FCDO remains committed to fighting global corruption and illicit finance. Under our Global Anti-Corruption Sanctions regime established in April this year, the UK has so far imposed travel bans and asset freezes on 27 individuals from 10 countries for their involvement in serious corruption. We continue to fund the vital work of the National Crime Agency's International Corruption Unit, which has restrained, confiscated, or returned over £1.1billion of assets stolen from developing countries since 2006. And we continue to encourage countries everywhere, including through our ongoing Presidency of the G7, to take steps to improve beneficial ownership transparency, so that we can limit the role of anonymous shell companies, as highlighted by the Pandora Papers, in enabling international illicit finance.

Unexplained wealth orders are a very important tool and, yes, we are absolutely making sure the resources are there to support their use.

May I first extend my condolences to the families and friends of James and Sir David?

Over the recess the Pandora papers showed that corrupt and criminal money is still making its way into the UK, yet no unexplained wealth orders have been issued for the last two years. Will the Minister ensure that the National Crime Agency has the resources to pursue such orders in any case where they are appropriate?

The Government is committed to continuing to provide financial support via Local Authorities for businesses that are required to close, or which are severely affected by the restrictions put in place to tackle Covid-19 and save lives.

Both non-rate paying and rate paying businesses have been invited to apply for Covid business grants individually. The different elements of the Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG) and the mandatory grant schemes are designed so that both rate paying and non-rate paying businesses have access to grants. The ARG is a discretionary grant scheme and Local Authorities will decide whether to pay the business ratepayer or the occupying business (or both).

The Government has introduced a range of measures to support tenants struggling to pay rent: we introduced legislation that provides a moratorium on forfeitures of commercial leases owing to the non-payment of rent, reducing the ability of landlords to evict tenants if they cannot pay their rent due to Covid-19 restrictions. Government has also restricted landlords’ abilities to seize goods in lieu of unpaid rent by making changes to the use of Commercial Rent Arrears Recovery. We are protecting businesses from insolvency introducing, via the Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act 2020, restrictions on the service of statutory demands and winding-up petitions.

All these measures are in place until 30 June and we will make an announcement before then on their future. Government published a Code of Practice to help support rent negotiations and on 6 April published additional guidance to help landlords and tenants that have not yet been able to reach agreement about accrued rent arrears and ongoing lease terms.

Both BEIS and UKRI have refused grant payments to companies that cannot get a UK bank account in their own name. The BEIS Grant funding agreement template includes the condition that payments must be into a bank located in the UK.

We do not hold any of the further data requested. Data on Government allocations to, and payments by, Local Authorities, for Government Business Support Grants, is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-grant-funding-local-authority-payments-to-small-and-medium-businesses.

The information requested could only be made available at disproportionate cost. Due to the high number of contracts awarded by HMRC, it would take a significant amount of HMRC staff resource to obtain the information requested. HMRC records are not held in such a way as to identify contracts that have ended due to a supplier termination event and the reason behind this.

HMRC incorporate standard tax compliance clauses into all of their commercial contracts, requiring the supplier to ensure that it and its subcontractors do not put in place arrangements involving offshore companies designed to achieve a reduction in United Kingdom tax which would otherwise be payable.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer to PQ 8404, answered on the 3 February 2020.

CDC invests in accordance with its policy on the payment of taxes and the use of offshore financial centres which is available on CDCs website. Under this policy, which has been agreed with DFID and is reviewed annually, CDC’s preference is to invest directly into the country in which the investee company’s business operations are located. Where CDC does use an offshore financial centre, it only uses those that are compliant with international tax transparency standards, as monitored by the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Tax information.

As of 31st March 2019, 25% of CDC’s investments are held in CDC investment companies not domiciled in the UK.

CDC reviews its tax policy at least annually with a view to remaining consistent with evolving international standards and the best practice of multilateral and bilateral development finance institutions. This policy is regularly reviewed by DFID.

DFID does not have any subsidiaries.

To enable greater transparency in and to identify our flow of funds, programme delivery chains are mapped out to identify and capture the names of all partners involved in delivering a specific good, service or change, down to the end beneficiary is completed. In addition to this delivery partners are required to publish data to the IATI standard on all its DFID funding.

Information on the amount of cash or cash equivalents held in offshore bank accounts is not readily available and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

There are currently no plans to include disclosures for cash held by departments in offshore bank accounts in Whole of Government Accounts. Departments largely hold their cash balances in the Government Banking Service, in line with the guidance in Managing Public Money.