Catherine McKinnell, Labour MP for Newcastle North, has spent this week in Parliament pressing the Government to take further action on international development and social justice issues.

Catherine met yesterday (2^ND March) with International Development Minister, Alan Duncan, to discuss her support for the Publish What You Pay campaign – a global network of civil society organisations, which is calling for oil, gas and mining revenues to form the basis for development and improve the lives of ordinary citizens in resource-rich countries.  This meeting with the Minister followed Catherine’s sponsoring of a Bill on the same issue, which was introduced by her Labour colleague Anas Sarwar MP on Tuesday (1^st March).

Catherine also used this week’s statement on the future of development aid to urge the Government to quickly and fully implement the 2010 Bribery Act, which was passed by the previous Labour Government.

Catherine said:

“International development and issues of social justice are incredibly important to people of all ages across my constituency. Only this week, I have spoken with members of the St Aidan’s congregation in Brunton Park about how we can work together to fight global poverty, and I discussed the importance of Fairtrade Fortnight with Westerhope Primary School pupils.

“I used my meeting with the Minister yesterday to press him to consider how US legislation, which obliges all US companies engaged in oil, gas or mineral extraction to report how much they pay to each government in taxes, can be replicated in the UK.  Oil, gas and mining revenues are critically important economic sectors in about 60 developing and transition countries. Yet, these resource-rich countries rank amongst the lowest in the world in terms of poverty, economic growth, authoritarian corruption and mismanagement, and fuel conflicts. I believe that enabling these countries to increase their tax take from UK companies benefiting from their natural resources is a sustainable way in which to help them end their long-term aid dependency.

“I was also pleased to have the opportunity this week to push the Coalition to fully implement Labour’s landmark Bribery Act. If the Government is serious about ensuring that development aid gets to the right people in the right places, it should implement this legislation without delay, as combating bribery, fraud and corruption is vital to supporting this aim.”

Notes:

1. Publish What You Pay (PWYP – http://www.publishwhatyoupay.org/) is a global network of civil society organisations that are united in their call for oil, gas and mining revenues to form the basis for development and improve the lives of ordinary citizens in resource-rich countries. Members and supporters in the UK include: ActionAid, Amnesty International, CAFOD, CARE International, Ecumenical Council for Corporate Responsibility, Global Witness, ONE Campaign, Open Society Foundations, Oxfam, Save the Children, Tearfund and Transparency International. The USA’s Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act passed into law on 21 July 2010. The new law includes a provision obliging all SEC-listed companies engaged in oil, gas or mineral extraction anywhere in the world to report how much they pay to each government in their annual SEC filing. Therefore, to access US capital markets, companies will have to publically disclose all royalties, taxes and payments, on a project- and country-specific basis.
2. Catherine McKinnell MP is a co-sponsor of Anas Sarwar MP’s Resource Extraction (Transparency and Reporting) Bill, which received its First Reading in the Commons on 1^st March.
3. The 2010 Bribery Act enables the UK to conform to the OECD’s Anti-Bribery Convention and created new offences, including offering or giving a bribe; requesting or receiving a bribe; bribing foreign public officials; and the failure of a commercial organisation to prevent an act of bribery by an associate person. Passed with cross-party support to update legislation dating back to 1906, the Bill underwent extensive consultation with business and NGOs. The Act was originally due to be implemented in October 2010, this was then postponed until April 2011, and it now appears that the Ministry of Justice has delayed implementation indefinitely following lobbying by Business Secretary Vince Cable. This has been strongly criticised by development NGOs, including Global Witness, Tearfund, CAFOD and Christian Aid, stating that ‘it  casts serious doubt on [the Coalition’s] commitment to combating corruption.’