United Kingdom

There is no evidence of back-sliding since the previous Validation, in which Requirement 1.5 was assessed as “satisfactory progress”.

Resolution of conflicts within the civil society constituency has allowed the MSG to focus more attention on outreach and dissemination of UKEITI findings. There is clear evidence of progress since the previous validation on the coordination of communication activities to explain and promote EITI data.

The launch of the new UKEITI website in 2020 has made a tangible improvement in the MSG’s efforts to make UKEITI data comprehensible and accessible. The new website is widely viewed by MSG members as a robust platform through which the UK can centralise extractive data that is systematically disclosed on various government and company websites. On the extractive industries’ contribution to the economy, the ONS publishes gross value-added data, the Department for BEIS publishes employment data and the OGA publishes government oil and gas revenues in open format, although data on government revenues from mining and quarrying are not yet published in open format.

There is a clear mechanism for the MSG’s consistent follow-up on recommendations from past EITI Reports and Validation, with reforms since the previous Validation for instance in systematic disclosures of licensing rules across the 11 licensing authorities in the UK as a result of follow-up on EITI recommendations.

The MSG has undertaken efforts to review the outcomes and impact of the EITI beyond the minimum required aspects of this provision. Having published annual progress reports in the 2014-2018 period, the MSG transitioned to a standalone impact study in 2020 that sought views from different stakeholders on EITI implementation in 2013-2020. The requirement’s overall objective of regular public monitoring and evaluation of implementation that ensures the EITI’s accountability has been addressed. However, encouraged aspects of the requirement including documentation of the MSG’s efforts to take gender considerations and inclusiveness into account have not yet been comprehensively addressed, which implies that Requirement 7.4 has not yet been exceeded.

The government is actively engaged in EITI implementation. There is robust representation across relevant government departments on the MSG.

With some exceptions related to some of the financial data on government revenues, the data curated on the UKEITI website appears to be consistently and systematically disclosed by individual reporting agencies and organisations. Stakeholder consultations have consistently suggested that the main value added by the UKEITI website is the collection, curation, and presentation of data that is disclosed elsewhere.

Civil society is actively engaged in EITI implementation, having resolved the civil society constituency challenges that were disruptive in the period covered by the previous Validation. The civil society constituency’s efforts, supported by the UKEITI Secretariat, to engage stakeholders from communities hosting extractive activities are commendable, even if they have not yet been successful in ensuring direct participation of such groups on the MSG.

The MSG appears to be functioning in an efficient and equitable manner, with adequate representation from the three constituencies and robust representation across relevant government departments. The pandemic has curtailed MSG plans for in-person outreach across the country, which has affected progress to build local stakeholder engagement. The MSG appears to be fulfilling its role of representing the views of the three broader constituencies, within the constraints of limited public interest in UKEITI findings and local stakeholders’ capacity constraints.

The UKEITI disclosures on its website and through its UKEITI annual reviews continue to provide comprehensive information on the extractive industries and their contribution to the economy. This information is systematically disclosed on government websites.

The UKEITI disclosures and respective government websites continue to provide comprehensive information on the legal environment and fiscal regime for the extractive industries, with reference to systematic disclosures.

UKEITI has described the policies and practices of each of the 11 licensing authorities in the absence of an overarching government policy on disclosure of all extractive contracts. All NSTA licenses are publicly disclosed in full text. The 20121 Report documents these disclsoures and notes that the UK has mostly met the objective of Requirement 2.4 in ensuring public accessibility of licenses and contracts in the extractive sector. There however several gaps in disclosures related to the technical aspects of the requirement, specifically relating to public accessibility of all licenses and contracts.

The UK has not yet fully met the objective of this requirement, which is therefore marked as “not assessed”. The UK has not provided relevant legal and administrative rules for environmental management but has shared high-level details on how policy is expected to restrict domestic petroleum extraction and may revive domestic minerals extraction, with a particular focus on climate policy. Nonetheless, the 2021 report highlights the independent Committee on Climate Change as the main advisory body to the government on the energy transition, and the North Sea Transition Deal as a government agreement with petroleum producers to address the energy transition and protect energy jobs.

Stakeholders consulted appeared to consider that the objective of providing a public overview of awards and transfers of oil, gas and mining licences, the statutory procedures for licence awards and transfers and whether these procedures are followed in practice had been achieved despite what were considered to be minor technical gaps in disclosures. The number of data gaps has significantly declined since the period reviewed in the previous Validation.

In the 2021 Report stakeholders consulted agree that the requirement’s objective of ensuring the public accessibility of comprehensive information on property rights related to extractive deposits and projects had been fulfilled. The number of data gaps has significantly declined since the period reviewed in the previous Validation. Licence registers are available online from most licensing authorities that have issued active licences, leases and options in the mining or petroleum sectors, and cover all active licences regardless of the materiality of the licence holder's payments to government.

The government has established a clear policy on and definition of beneficial ownership in law and regulation. Beneficial ownership information is collected and made publicly available by Companies House for entities that hold and apply for licenses in the extractives industry. Quality assurances are in place and publicly documented, while the Companies House beneficial ownership registry covers all extractives companies. UKEITI reporting has highlighted publicly listed companies and identified the stock exchanges where they are listed and has disclosed specific links to relevant companies’ stock exchange filings in accordance with Requirement 2.5.f.iii as part of the 2020 Payments Report published after the start of Validation.

There is no evidence of back-sliding since the previous Validation, in which Requirement 2.6 was assessed as “not applicable”.

There is no evidence of back-sliding since the previous Validation, in which Requirement 4.2 was assessed as “not applicable”.

There is no evidence of back-sliding since the previous Validation, in which Requirement 4.5 was assessed as “not applicable”.

There is no evidence of back-sliding since the previous Validation, in which Requirement 6.2 was assessed as “not applicable”.

The UKEITI disclosures on its website and through its UKEITI annual reviews continue to provide access to comprehensive information on mining, quarrying, coal, oil and gas production and exports. This information is systematically disclosed on government websites.

The UKEITI disclosures on its website and through its UKEITI annual reviews continue to provide access to comprehensive information on mining, quarrying, coal, oil and gas production and exports. This information is systematically disclosed on government websites.

The 2021 EITI Report provides full comprehensive and reliable disclosures of company payments and government revenues

There continues to be no barter-type arrangements in the UK.

There continues to be no transportation revenues in the UK.

Disaggregated figures for company payments and government revenues from oil, gas and mining are published, disaggregated by government entity, revenue stream and company. The UK has defined the term 'project' in legislation, a definition that is consistent with that in Requirement 4.7. All of the material government revenues from the extractive industries that are levied on a per-project basis have been published disaggregated as such.

The UK has fully met the objective of this requirement in producing 2019 UKEITI data within one year of the end of the calendar year covered and given the MSG’s approval of the reporting period.

There is no evidence of back-sliding since the previous Validation, in which Requirement 4.9 was assessed as “satisfactory progress”.

The UKEITI disclosures and respective government websites continue to provide comprehensive information on the management of extractive industry revenues and related expenditures. This information is systematically disclosed on government websites.

There is no evidence of back-sliding since the previous Validation, in which Requirement 5.3 was marked as “not assessed”. The UK does not appear yet to have addressed all aspects of Requirement 5.3 through systematic disclosures by government entities and extractive companies.

The UKEITI has demonstrated that there are no material direct subnational payments by the extractive industries in the UK.

The UKEITI disclosures and respective government websites continue to provide comprehensive information on subnational transfers of extractive revenues to Northern Ireland.

The UK has fully met the objective of Requirement 6.1, given that the corrective action on mandatory social expenditures has been addressed and that the new requirements on environmental payments to government are not considered applicable given the MSG’s materiality decisions. The UKEITI has published companies' unilateral disclosures of mandatory social expenditures ('Section 106 payments'), with detailed information on the one reporting company's Section 106 payments including disaggregation by beneficiary, confirmation that the payment was made in cash and description of the purpose of each expenditure, published just after the commencement of Validation on the UKEITI website. he UKEITI has piloted aggregate disclosures of environmental taxes from the extractive industries in the 2020 UKEITI Annual Review (2019 data), although it has maintained its traditional material decisions (since the 2014 EITI Report) to exclude indirect taxes on the extractive industries (e.g., taxes on consumption rather than production) from the scope of UKEITI reconciliation. The UKEITI has not disclosed any voluntary social or environmental expenditures where applicable.