My Lords, my name stands with that of my noble friend Lord Watson of Invergowrie on these amendments. He has introduced them with great panache, and I do not have a great deal more to say but I think that the issues are so important that a few more points are necessary and worth while.
First, I shall give the House some of the facts that point to the scale of the problem of fraud and tax avoidance, which I do not think many of our fellow country people understand. My noble friend Lord Watson and I have been hugely helped by the Anti-Corruption APPG of this House, which, in turn, has been supported by Global Witness and Christian Aid, and a wonderful job they have done. One of the statistics they have produced for us—I think that Transparency International has had some part in this as well—is that the best estimate is that $21 trillion to $32 trillion of private financial assets rest in tax havens, and that 20% to 30% of that huge corpus of assets is corruptly diverted. Of that, they reckon that $120 billion to $180 billion per annum, which is far more than the entire global aid budget, is diverted unlawfully from developing countries. This is a rather poignant day on which to say that, as the Bill concerning the 0.7% contribution to aid has just been passed.
Another fact which I find rather depressing because it affects the UK is that it is reckoned that the Crown dependencies and overseas territories are host to one-third of all the world’s shell companies. On top of that, more than 36,000 properties, which are mainly in the most expensive parts of this wonderful city, are owned by overseas owners but are placed in shell companies in tax havens, 38% of them in the British Virgin Islands, 16% in Jersey, 9.5% in the Isle of Man and 9% in
Guernsey. In addition, the World Bank’s review of the 200-plus biggest corporation corruption cases shows that 70% use shell companies as their vehicles of fraud. Therefore, the background to this amendment could not be more important and striking.
At this point, I have to own up to something from my dim and distant legal past. In the mid-1960s I was what was then called a tax mitigation lawyer. I notice a groan from behind me.