What is EITI?
What is EITI?
The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) is a global initiative that promotes open and accountable management of oil, gas and mineral resources. Find out more about EITI and the story of its implementation in the UK here.
EITI ensures transparency and accountability on how a country's natural resources are managed. This is a major concern in many resource-rich developing nations where the benefits of resource extraction are sometimes lost through mismanagement and corruption.
EITI was first announced in 2002 at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg by the then UK Prime Minister, Tony Blair and officially launched in London in 2003.
The EITI International Secretariat, based in Oslo, supports countries in implementing a published set of requirements, the EITI Standard. EITI is currently being implemented in 55 countries around the world.
A core part of EITI requires oil, gas and mining companies to voluntarily disclose their payments to government agencies and for the reconciliation of these payments with government receipts from these companies.
As a stakeholder-led initiative, EITI is overseen in each implementing country by a Multi-Stakeholder Group (MSG) comprising representatives from industry, civil society and government.
EITI in the UK - Timeline
The UK was a prime mover behind the establishment of EITI in 2002 and in 2013 chose to implement the EITI Standard in order to show leadership in the anti-corruption agenda worldwide.
The timeline below shows the key milestones in implementing EITI in the UK.
22 May 2013
The UK Prime Minister announced commitment to EITI
9 July 2013
A Multi-Stakeholder Group (MSG) was formed to oversee EITI implementation in the UK
9 October 2013
The MSG held its first meeting
5 August 2014
The UK submitted its application to become an ‘EITI Candidate’ country to the EITI Board
15 October 2014
The UK became an EITI candidate country.
15 April 2016
First UK EITI Report published (Period covered: calendar year 2014 / Sectors covered: Oil, Gas, Mining and Quarrying)
31 March 2017
Second UK EITI Report published (Period covered: calendar year 2015 / Sectors covered: Oil, Gas, Mining and Quarrying)
30 April 2018
Third UK EITI Report published (Period covered: calendar year 2016 / Sectors covered: Oil, Gas, Mining and Quarrying)
1 July 2018
UK Validation against the 2016 EITI Standard commenced
25 February 2019
Fourth UK EITI Report published (Period covered: calendar year 2017 / Sectors covered: Oil, Gas, Mining and Quarrying)
2 May 2019
UK draft Validation report published
14 November 2019
Validation announcement that UK had made “meaningful progress” in implementing the 2016 EITI Standard
20 December 2019
Fifth UK EITI Report published (Period covered: calendar year 2018 / Sectors covered: Oil, Gas, Mining and Quarrying)
29 May 2020
UK EITI website launched.
25 November 2020
Payments data covering calendar year 2019 published on the UK EITI website.
9 December 2020
Launch and publication of UK EITI Annual Review 2020.
One of the key roles played by UK EITI is to bring together data from a wide range of sources in an accessible format.
Much of this data is already available on other government and industry websites; UK EITI collates and signposts data to increase public understanding of the extractive industries.
The UK EITI annual report provides information on the UK extractives sector, its contribution to the UK economy and the financial flows between government and industry.
Our aim in publishing this data is to help identify the positive contribution that the extractive sectors are making to the economic and social development of the country and to demonstrate the industries’ commitment to transparency and good governance.
UK EITI Objectives
UK EITI objectives are:
- Uphold the principles set out in the 2019 EITI Standard and implement them in a way suitable for the UK context.
- Promote transparent and accessible disclosure systems and good governance in the extractives sector. Enhance accountability on revenues from the UK’s extractives industries.
- Increase public understanding of the social and economic impacts of the UK's extractive industries and enrich public debate on the governance and stewardship of the UK's oil, gas and mineral resources.
- Contribute to international efforts to further transparent and accessible disclosure systems, common global reporting standards and good governance in the extractives sector.
The MSG sets out its plans to meet these objectives and its priorities for the year in annual work plans.
Validation
The validation of the UK, carried out by the EITI International Secretariat during 2018, was intended to provide all stakeholders with an impartial assessment of whether EITI implementation in the UK is consistent with the provisions of the EITI Standard.
1st July 2018
The UK began its validation under the EITI Standard
2nd May 2019
The initial validation report was published. It contained a number of recommendations and an assessment against each requirement of the Standard
16 May 2019
The independent validator completed their report, which provided further comments on the initial report
14 November 2019
Following further consultation with the UK MSG, the EITI Board agreed an overall assessment of “meaningful progress” for the UK in implementing the 2016 EITI Standard
The validation identified a number of corrective actions that the MSG need to consider before being validated again against the EITI Standard.
The EITI Board noted that these actions are not onerous, and it should be possible to address them quickly; The MSG has made good progress on the majority of the corrective actions and the revalidation is now expected to begin in the Spring of 2021.
