PWYP UK is a coalition of 30 UK-based NGOs (listed below) united in working for a more transparent, accountable and sustainable extractive sector. Six UK coalition members co-founded the PWYP campaign in 2002. PWYP UK became UK registered charity no. 1191553 on 30 September 2020.
PWYP UK and its members engaged with UK and European Union politicians, officials, companies, investors and others to help secure the EU’s adoption of strong mandatory payments-to-governments reporting rules for oil, gas and mining companies under the 2013 Accounting and Transparency Directives. The coalition worked with the UK government to achieve early and effective implementation in UK law of the Directives in 2014, and to ensure that companies report their country- and project-level payments in open and machine-readable data formats.
Recent work has included : (1) monitoring payments-to-governments reporting by more than 90 UK-incorporated and London Stock Exchange-listed extractive companies each year; (2) engaging with the UK government and companies to improve the quality of these and related company disclosures and broader accountability and sustainability; and (3) collaborating with other PWYP coalitions and members in (a) analysing payments disclosed under UK law, (b) raising awareness in-country about payments to governments and public revenues, (c) assessing industry impacts on communities and the environment, (d) catalysing public participation in natural resource governance, (e) holding governments and companies to account to bring about fairer and more sustainable outcomes for citizens when non-renewable natural resources are extracted; and (4) working with others for an equitable low-carbon energy transition and for better governance of transition minerals.
PWYP UK has been a member of the UK Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (UK EITI) Civil Society Network (CSN), which elects civil society representatives to the UK’s EITI Multi-Stakeholder Group. The CSN’s Membership Principles and a list of current full member organisations are online here.
New IBASE-PWYP UK-PWYP report on Brazil’s Minas-Rio iron ore mine October 2021 – In Search of Transparency: Ending Opacity in Brazil’s Extractive Sector assesses the social, environmental and human rights impacts of Minas-Rio, the world’s ninth largest iron ore mine, located in Minas Gerais State and operated by Anglo American. IBASE and PWYP UK’s report, co-published with the PWYP International Secretariat, shows the local municipality struggling with the mine’s social costs and the Brazilian government’s lack of transparency and accountability. Local Afro-descendant communities experience water shortages, impaired livelihoods, respiratory disease and community fragmentation and live in fear of a catastrophic tailings dam breach. The report highlights what needs to change. Read more here (includes press release and access to Portuguese and Spanish language versions).
PWYP UK joins calls on UK Government not to green-light major new North Sea oil field July 2021 – PWYP UK is calling on the UK Government to listen to the climate science and the International Energy Agency and not to give the go-ahead to Cambo, a major new oil field in the North Sea. Read PWYP UK’s consultation submission and E3G’s briefing.
PWYP UK and members join calls to PM Johnson to halt new UK oil and gas licensing
June 2021 – PWYP UK and members CAFOD, Christian Aid, Oxfam GB, Tearfund and United Nations Association UK co-signed a letter to Prime Minister Boris Johnson citing the latest International Energy Agency (IEA) Net Zero report and calling for an end to new UK North Sea oil and gas licensing and to UK hydrocarbon subsidies, for a planned, managed and equitable UK energy transition and for the Oil and Gas Authority’s legal mandate to be aligned with a 1.5°C pathway accounting for the UK’s historic responsibility for emissions, and highlighting the UK’s obligation to take the lead on climate as a developed country. Read the letter.
PWYP UK and Policy Alert report on Nigeria’s oil & gas
March 2021 – Hundreds of millions of dollars paid every year by multinational energy companies towards development in the Niger Delta have had negligible impact on people’s lives or environmental protection, the new study co-authored by Policy Alert (Nigeria) and PWYP UK, with a contribution from Stakeholder Democracy Network, discloses. “What’s in It for Us?” An action-research case study of Nigeria’s extractive industries also highlights the risks of unburnable carbon and stranded assets. Our report underlines how unaccountable and badly governed Nigeria’s extractive sector is and makes recommendations for what needs to change. Read more including press release here and blog on Land Portal.
Investor briefing on Rio Tinto’s QMM Madagascar ilmenite mine
March 2021 – Co-published by Andrew Lees Trust UK, PCQVP Madagascar and PWYP UK ahead of Rio Tinto’s April 2021 AGM, this new Investor briefing: Rio Tinto’s QMM mine Madagascar sums up the issues and civil society’s concerns: communities; safe drinking water; contamination of the environment; human rights violations; and transparency. Read more. See also ALT UK’s latest blog.
End-of-year 2020 update from PWYP UK
December 2020 – PWYP UK’s annual update to coalition members and allies sums up a year of notable achievements, albeit with a few disappointments. Read more.
PWYP UK and partners’ report on Kazakh oil & gas reveals high costs, few benefits
November 2020 – Two giant oil and gas fields in Kazakhstan involving Shell, Total, Eni and other international extractive companies are high cost projects with few public benefits, according to PWYP UK’s new joint report. Researched and co-published with Kazakh NGOs Echo and Civil Expertise, PCQVP France/Oxfam France and the PWYP International Secretariat, Transparency, Participation and Accountability in Kazakhstan: An action-research case study of the extractive industry concludes that the Karachaganak and Kashagan fields have yielded few gains for the host country while impacting negatively on the environment, local communities and civic space. Read more. Press release here.
PWYP UK and allies’ letters to Foreign Secretary and EITI Champion on natural resource governance
October 2020 – Members of PWYP UK, the UK Anti-Corruption Coalition and the UK EITI Civil Society Network wrote to Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Secretary Dominic Raab and to EITI Champion Lord Callanan to urge them to enhance the UK’s international commitment to extractive sector transparency and accountability, including driving the creation of climate-risk-related disclosures via the EITI and other international mechanisms and fora, and to help ensure the UK delivers substantial progress towards its 2050 net zero carbon emissions target ahead of the 2021 UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow. Read letters here and here.
PWYP UK becomes a charity (CIO)
October 2020 – PWYP UK was registered by the Charity Commission as UK registered charity no. 1191553 on 30 September. The legal form is Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO), which is suitable for smaller charities. Former Steering Group members have become PWYP UK’s trustees. For practical reasons the trustees adopted a foundation model constitution, which limits membership of the CIO to the trustees only. But PWYP UK’s constitution states explicitly in clause 17 (3): “The charity trustees recognise the importance of Publish What You Pay UK remaining true to its origins as a vehicle for collective action by a coalition of like-minded civil society organisations and will continue to consult with and respond to the views of non-voting coalition (associate) members on significant matters.”
UK government publishes response to the Corporate Transparency and Register Reform consultation
September 2020 – The UK government has issued its response to its 2019 Corporate Transparency and Register Reform consultation, setting out how BEIS and Companies House will take forward plans to reform Companies House. The full response is here. PWYP UK submitted to this consultation, with encouragement from officials, although payments-to-government reporting was not an explicit focus. Reforms announced, planned over five years, include: requiring identity verification for company directors, People with Significant Control (PSCs) and filers; consideration of circular company ownership structures (associated risks of fraudulent activity); enabling Companies House to query information and ask for evidence; requiring filing in iXBRL format; identifying data sets for cross-referencing against the company register (this could potentially include links to payments-to-governments reporting at https://extractives.companieshouse.gov.uk/); and closer integration of Companies House with other bodies tasked with combating economic crime.
PWYP UK welcomes fifth UK EITI report, but has the UK fiscal regime been too generous to industry?
January 2020 – In December 2019, the United Kingdom’s Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) Multi-Stakeholder Group (MSG) oversaw publication of the UK’s Kingdom’s fifth EITI report, covering calendar year 2018 … Read the full post.
Further PWYP UK submission to US SEC to inform Dodd-Frank Section 1504 rulemaking
November 2019 – Working closely with PWYP US, PWYP UK has made a second submission to the US Securities & Exchange Commission to highlight the positive outcomes of the UK government’s 2017-18 post-implementation review of mandatory payments to governments reporting under UK law. The submission is intended to influence the SEC’s forthcoming third rulemaking for Dodd-Frank Act Section 1504, the original but so far unimplemented mandatory transparency law for extractive companies. Read PWYP UK’s submission. Current submissions to the SEC on Section 1504 are here.
Driving natural resources transparency is a priority in Fighting Corruption manifesto addressed to UK politicians October 2019 – PWYP UK has with NRGI ensured that driving natural resources transparency globally is a priority put to UK politicians in the Fighting Corruption manifesto published by leading UK anti-corruption organisations. Bond has published a blog on the manifesto by Susan Hawley, co-chair of the BOND Anti-Corruption Group, here.
PWYP UK and others support advocacy with Madagascar government August 2019 – Following months of engagement with mining giant Rio Tinto, PWYP UK and member organisation Andrew Lees Trust worked with PCQVP Madagascar to send a letter and briefing to Malagasy ministers raising urgent concerns about extractive industry governance in Madagascar. In addition to Malagasy civil society co-signatories, many PWYP member organisations and others from around the world co-signed the letter as supporting organisations. Read the letter and briefing in English and French here, here, here and here.
PWYP UK submission to government review of corporate transparency provisions
August 2019 – In a detailed submission to the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy consultation on Corporate Transparency and Register Reform, PWYP UK makes fifteen recommendations to enhance Companies House’s online Extractives Service. The Extractives Service is the government repository for payments-to-governments reports by UK-incorporated oil, gas and mining companies. Read the full submission here.
PWYP and TI-EU write jointly with extractive companies to European Commission to recommend improvements to EU company payments reporting
June 2019 – Following discussions with mining and oil companies in the context of the European Commission’s “fitness check” on company reporting, PWYP and TI-EU have written jointly with leading extractive companies to Commission Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis. Our joint letter recommends publication of payments to governments reports in an open, human-readable and machine-readable format on an EU-wide online repository, maintained by the Commission and freely accessible to the public. Read the letter here.
UK financial regulator confirms oil, gas and mining companies must name government entities receiving payments
April/May 2019 – Some oil, gas and mining companies reporting their payments to governments under UK law have omitted important elements, including the identity of government entities receiving payments. Publish What You Pay UK and NRGI have raised concerns around the omissions, and the UK authorities are taking action. This new blog post is available from PWYP in English and French, from NRGI and on GOXI.
Preparing for the PWYP Global Assembly, Senegal, 29-31 January
January 2019 – PWYP UK has selected a three-person delegation for PWYP’s Global Assembly in Dakar, Senegal: Dominic Eagleton, Global Witness; Alexander Malden, Natural Resource Governance Institute; and Genevieve Theriault-Lachance, Rights & Accountability in Development. Miles Litvinoff of PWYP UK will participate as Global Council nominee for Europe and North America. With a rich programme, diverse expert speakers and an array of workshop sessions, we look forward to connecting with PWYP members from all over the world and to strengthening our movement for transparency, participation and accountability in the extractive sector. Read more.
New PWYP UK study explores UK EITI and mandatory payments data variances
September 2018 – PWYP UK has published Comparing UK EITI and Mandatory Payments to Governments Data for 2016. This 12-page report compares data released via the UK Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) with payments disclosed under UK and other European Union member state regulations implementing the EU Accounting and Transparency Directives’ country-by-country reporting requirements for extractive companies. The assessment investigates the degree of consistency between extractives companies’ total disclosed payments to UK government entities as reported under the two transparency regimes, and the extent and implications of, and reasons for, major variances. Read full story. Download the report.
UK Government review confirms commitment to extractives transparency, welcomed by PWYP UK and others
June/July 2018 – Citing significant input from PWYP coalitions and members, and from transparency champions, the UK Government’s post-implementation review report on the Reports on Payments to Governments Regulations 2014 has concluded that much good work has been done to encourage transparency and accountability in the extractive industries and reaffirms the UK’s high-profile policy commitment in this area. PWYP UK has welcomed the conclusions of the review, especially that “this type of reporting does not disadvantage company business interests, including their relationships with governments”. Global Witness praised the report as setting “a positive example for decision-makers in the US and EU, where similar transparency rules for extractive companies are also coming under review”. And the US Lugar Center highlighted in its comment No burden, no competitive harm from extractives reporting how the UK “takes seriously its global leadership role and its international commitments” in this area.
PWYP UK publishes brief multilingual guides to accessing UK-based extractive company reports on payments to governments
June 2018 – To help PWYP coalitions, member organisations and others in civil society access and use the 90-plus UK-based extractive companies’ payments to governments reports, PWYP UK has published a short practical guide in English, French and Spanish to accessing the data. PWYP UK’s accompanying blog in English, French and Spanish encourages civil society to access the reports and use the data, and proposes new data-based advocacy partnerships.
PWYP EU members’ analysis and advocacy priorities for EU review of Accounting and Transparency directives’ extractives reporting provisions
April 2018 – PWYP UK and other PWYP EU coalitions and members have finalised their policy analysis and advocacy priorities for the EU review of extractives payments to governments reporting under Accounting Directive chapter 10 and Transparency Directive article 6. Read the full paper or short summary.
PWYP UK urges US Securities and Exchange Commission to maintain global extractive transparency standard in new rulemaking
March 2018 – PWYP UK has written to US SEC Chair Jay Clayton and the four SEC Commissioners urging them to ensure that their new rule for the bipartisan Cardin-Lugar anti-corruption provision, Section 1504 of the Dodd-Frank Act, aligns strongly with existing reporting requirements for oil, gas and mining companies incorporated and publicly listed on stock exchanges in Europe and Canada. Read the letter here.
Transparency champions and PWYP UK call on UK to maintain oil & mining disclosure momentum
November 2017 – Leading advocates of country-by-country payments to governments reporting by oil, gas and mining companies have joined Publish What You Pay UK in calling on the UK government to continue to lead the global push for greater transparency in the extractive industries as part of the fight against corruption and for citizen empowerment in resource-rich countries. Read the story here and the full PWYP UK submission here.
Trustees and funding
PWYP UK’s charity trustees
Habte Hagos – Eritrea Focus (Treasurer)
Joseph Kraus – ONE
Simon Taylor – Global Witness
Joseph Williams – Green Hydrogen Organisation (Chair)
PWYP UK’s 2020 income and expenditure summary is available here.
PWYP UK worked with the UK government to ensure effective implementation of EU mandatory reporting rules for extractive companies, including open data reporting, and seeks to work increasingly with civil society in host countries in using the data to achieve greater government and company accountability.
Miles Litvinoff 
Key resources: oil, natural gas, coal (historical), and construction, industrial and metal minerals.