Today Amber Rudd announced a long overdue UK Anti-Corruption Strategy promised as one of the commitments that came out of the government’s 2016 Anti-Corruption Summit. Global Witness’s Naomi Hirst looks at what this means in reality for the UK’s commitment to fight corruption:
“If the UK is serious about tackling corruption it must clean up its own backyard. The Panama Papers and Paradise Papers exposed how the UK’s tax havens provide the getaway car for the corrupt to launder and spend their ill-gotten gains. This strategy will not fix this problem,” said Naomi Hirst, Senior Campaigner, Global Witness.
“We welcome the government’s renewed commitment to a property register and the creation of a new Ministerial role, but unless they genuinely tackle the tax havens the UK will remain central to the corruption that undermines democracies and violates human rights around the world.”
"The creation of a new ministerial post to tackle economic crime is a welcome recognition of the threat it poses to the UK and a clear statement of intent from the Home Secretary. The new Minister’s top priorities should be to reform corporate liability law so that companies can be held accountable and to create transparency in the UK's tax havens by ensuring public registers of beneficial ownership. Without these reforms, the post will be undermined from the outset."
/ ENDS
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