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 UK joins global oil, gas and mining transparency initiative

Civil society welcomes UK candidacy for Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative

http://publishwhatyoupay.org/sites/publishwhatyoupay.org/files/UK-joins-global-oil-gas-mining-transparency-initiative-15Oct14.pdf                                                              

LONDON – UK members of the global Publish What You Pay coalition welcomed today’s decision by the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) to admit the UK as a candidate country. The EITI accepted the UK’s application to join the initiative at its international board meeting in Naypyidaw, Myanmar.

The EITI is an international initiative of governments, companies and civil society designed to increase transparency and public accountability in the extractives sector and to improve natural resource governance. It requires companies to disclose payments made to governments for their oil, gas and minerals, and governments to divulge receipts. Each participating country publishes an annual report that reconciles the payment and revenue data, highlights any discrepancies and provides contextual information about the country’s extractive industries.

As a candidate country, the UK’s first EITI report is due in April 2016. Oil, gas and mining companies operating in the UK will need to submit information on payments made to the UK government during 2014 by mid-2015.

Miles Litvinoff, Coordinator of the Publish What You Pay UK Coalition and of the UK EITI Civil Society Network, said:

“Civil society fully supports the UK’s participation in the EITI as an implementing country. It is especially encouraging that the UK has committed to project-level payment reporting and to the public disclosure of oil, gas and mining companies’ beneficial ownership. The UK government has shown strong international leadership in both these areas, and its commitments will help raise the bar for reporting by EITI member countries worldwide.”

The UK joins the USA and Norway among OECD member states implementing the EITI, alongside more than 40 other countries. France, Germany and Italy have also committed to join the initiative.

“The UK has been a major backer of the EITI politically and financially,” Litvinoff added. “Implementation in the UK will both enhance public understanding and debate about the country’s oil, gas and mineral resources and support progress towards a more open and accountable extractives sector worldwide.

“We have a duty to steward these non-renewable resources responsibly for the benefit of present and future generations.”

As a complement to the voluntaristic EITI, Publish What You Pay coalitions around the world also advocate mandatory country- and project-level reporting rules consistent with revised EU Accounting and Transparency Directives that the UK government will soon be implementing.

Notes

·        The most recent UK Office of National Statistics figures for oil and gas receipts for 2011/12 show total revenues of £11.2 billion: http://www.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/assessment/monitoring/monitoring-reports/monitoring-report-6-2013---official-statistics-in-the-context-of-the-referendum-on-scottish-independence.pdf

·        UK EITI web pages: https://www.gov.uk/extractive-industries-transparency-initiative

·        UK government leadership: Lough Erne Leaders Communiqué – https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/207771/Lough_Erne_2013_G8_Leaders_Communique.pdf (page 9); UK Open Government Partnership National Action Plan – https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/open-government-partnership-uk-national-action-plan-2013/open-government-partnership-uk-national-action-plan-2013-to-2015

·        Publish What You Pay fact sheet on EU Accounting and Transparency Directives: http://publishwhatyoupay.org/sites/publishwhatyoupay.org/files/PWYP%20fact%20sheet%20on%20EU%20Accounting%20and%20Transparency%20Directives%20Nov2013.pdf

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