Payments Data

Reconciliation Scope

For the year 2021 the following payment streams (unchanged over the last two years) have been included:

• Oil and Gas (O&G) sector: combined total for Ring-Fence Corporation Tax (RFCT) and Supplementary Charge (SC), Petroleum Revenue Tax (PRT) and Advance Petroleum Revenue Tax (APRT), Petroleum Licence Fees, the OGA Levy and payments to TCE and CES in respect of pipelines operated by companies that operate in UK extractive activities. The MSG agreed that companies which paid over £1 million to OGA should also be included in the reconciliation.
• Mining and Quarrying (M&Q) sector: Corporation Tax (CT), extractive-related payments to TCE and CES, and monetary payments to local planning authorities as part of planning obligations.

In line with the Reports on Payments to Government Regulations 2014, the materiality threshold applied to each revenue stream at group level remained unchanged at £86,000. The government agencies that were required to report for the 2021 UK EITI reconciliation exercise were HMRC, the OGA, TCE and CES.

Adjustments to the EITI reconciliation scope

Every year the number of companies assessed as in-scope changes as new companies slip above or below the threshold of £86,000 or a reduction arises due to corporate mergers or acquisitions. In 2021 the reconciliation scope was adjusted slightly during the reconciliation exercise as more information on the extractive nature and materiality of payments emerged, and we believe that all material financial flows have been captured. These changes are detailed as follows:

Table 3: Adjustments to the EITI reconciliation scope

The final number of companies (both oil & gas and mining & quarrying) included in the EITI reconciliation scope was 57. As the total amount reported by government and extractive companies subject to the reconciliation constitutes almost 99% of the total reported by government agencies, the overall reconciliation outcome is satisfactory.

Table 5: Mining & Quarrying companies

This table lists the mining and quarrying companies that participated in the 2021 reconciliation process and provides a breakdown of their total corporation tax payments and receipts and their total payments made to TCE that exceeded the materiality threshold. There were no payments by these companies to CES.

There were additional minor payments reported by the government agencies for companies that were in scope but whose payments were below the agreed materiality thresholds and for in-scope companies that did not participate in the reconciliation process. The totals of these payments are reported in the summary tables above and, for petroleum licence fees and OGA Levy, are included in the online disclosure of project level payments and repayments, which also includes reconciled field level data on Petroleum Revenue Tax and project-level payments to TCE and CES.

Several companies have reported their 2021 payments to governments around the world, including to UK government entities, under the Reports on Payments to Governments Regulations 2014 as amended 2015 and the Accounts and Reports (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019. This does not form part of the UK EITI payment reconciliation exercise but rather represents complementary information to this report. There can be differences in the amounts reported under UK EITI and under the EU Accounting and Transparency Directives. These differences can relate to interpretation of the scope of payment categories, reporting currencies and timing of payments. The Natural Resource Governance Institute maintains a database of Payments made to Governments and reports submitted by companies under UK, EU/EEA and equivalent Canadian legislation[5].  

Beneficial Ownership

As part of EITI reporting, companies are asked to disclose their beneficial owners; that is, information on the people who ultimately own and control each company.

Most UK-registered companies are required to submit information on people with significant control (PSC) to Companies House. Publicly listed companies are exempt from PSC requirements because they already provide beneficial ownership information under stock exchange requirements. Therefore, in order to disclose their beneficial ownership information for EITI reporting, UK-registered companies need only confirm their filing and provide the link to the relevant page at Companies House in their EITI beneficial ownership declaration form. Private companies which have not filed information at Companies House on PSCs should disclose their beneficial ownership information in the EITI beneficial ownership declaration form.

All 57 companies which submitted EITI reporting templates also submitted a beneficial ownership declaration form, duly signed by a senior officer. Thirty-four of the reporting templates received were from companies that are either publicly listed or wholly owned subsidiaries of a publicly listed company, meaning that they provide beneficial ownership information under stock exchange requirements (see Table 7 below). The remaining 23 companies were privately held (see Table 8 below). 

Table 7: Publicly listed or wholly owned subsidiaries of publicly listed companies

Table 8: Privately held companies

Information on the beneficial owners of these 23 privately held companies can be found on the Companies House website[18]: simply search for the company of interest and use the 'people' tab to access information about PSCs. For ease of reference, all this information is available by following the links in the last column of the above table.

Private companies are also asked to disclose information on all owners who are identified as “politically exposed”, i.e. those who have political influence, or who, as family members or close associates, have links to senior political figures or government officials in the UK or abroad, and who have a shareholding of 5% or more in the company. In 2021, no privately owned companies making material payments under the EITI Standard disclosed politically exposed people. We cannot comment on whether companies which did not participate in this year’s reporting process have any politically exposed people.

Several extractive companies making material payments to the UK government are ultimately controlled by foreign government entities, which is a matter of public interest. It is important that the UK’s beneficial ownership system can accurately capture details of foreign government ownership of companies operating in the UK’s extractive sector.

More information on the UK’s beneficial ownership regime can be found on the beneficial ownership page of the UK EITI website.

Annex A: Background Information on the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative and UK Implementation

The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) is a global standard to promote open and accountable management of natural resources. It seeks to strengthen government and company systems, inform public debate, and enhance trust. To that effect it requires oil, gas, and mining companies to disclose their payments to government agencies and for the reconciliation of these payments with government receipts from these companies. In each implementing country, it is supported by a coalition of government, industry and civil society organisations working together.

The EITI was first announced at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in 2002 (the Earth Summit 2002) and was officially launched in London in 2003. The EITI is currently being implemented in 57 countries around the world.

The EITI Standard sets out the requirements which countries need to meet in order to be recognised, first as EITI Candidates and subsequently as an EITI Compliant country. The Standard is overseen by the EITI International Secretariat, which comprises members from governments, industry, and civil society organisations. As a stakeholder-led initiative, the EITI is overseen in each implementing country by a Multi-Stakeholder Group (MSG) comprising representatives from industry, civil society, and government.

Further background on UK EITI and the work of the UK EITI MSG is available on the UK EITI website (www.ukeiti.org).

EITI in the UK – Timeline

Annex B: Glossary of Abbreviations