To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what steps he plans to take to implement the G20 London Summit commitment to develop proposals by the end of 2009 to make it easier for developing countries to secure the benefits of a new co-operative tax environment; and whether discussion of such proposals will be on the agenda for the forthcoming G20 Summit in Pittsburgh. (291399)

The UK is working with its international partners to drive forward the G20 agenda to ensure that developing countries benefit from the new co-operative tax environment.

Earlier this month, G20 Finance Ministers lent further support to the proposal that developing countries should benefit from the new tax transparency, possibly through a multilateral instrument for information exchange, which would allow a wider group of countries—including developing countries—to access relevant tax information.

The Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes has agreed to report to the next meeting of G20 Finance Ministers in November on how multilateral tax information exchange agreements (TIEAs) work and what steps are necessary to accelerate full implementation of the international standard on tax information exchange. The UK will be pressing for early implementation of such an instrument. We expect this issue to be discussed at the meeting of G20 Finance Ministers in November.