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 57 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.

Find out more about the Multi-Stakeholder Group (MSG)

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.

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. 

This payments data provides information on the UK extractive 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. 

Extractive Industries in the UK 

UK EITI Objectives

UK EITI objectives are: 

  1. Uphold the principles set out in the EITI Standard and implement them in a way suitable for the UK context.
  2. Promote transparent and accessible disclosure systems and good governance in the extractives sector. Enhance accountability on revenues from the UK’s extractives industries. 
  3. 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. 
  4. 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.

View our latest work plan
 

Validation

The UK achieved an overall “High Score” - 90 out of 100 - against the 2019 EITI Standard in its validation which started on 1st July 2021.

The validation looked at three specific areas:

(1) transparency

(2) outcomes and impact

(3) stakeholder engagement. 

The UK’s high score reflects the UK’s Multi-Stakeholder Group’s concerted efforts to ensure that the EITI becomes a tool for increasing the accessibility of extractive sector data, and for centralising information on opportunities for multi-stakeholder input into oil, gas and mining sector governance. The UK’s achievements in improving transparency in beneficial ownership disclosures have established best practice that have inspired other EITI implementing countries.

The full assessment is available here.

In the first validation of the UK, carried out by the EITI International Secretariat during 2018,  the UK received an overall assessment of “meaningful progress” for the UK in implementing the 2016 EITI Standard. The full assessment is available here.

The recent validation identified one corrective action that the MSG need to consider before being validated again against the EITI Standard. They have also identified a number of encouragements that the MSG will also consider.Full UK Validation Data