UK EITI Compliance subgroup meeting note, 18th February 2025

UK EITI Compliance subgroup meeting, Tuesday 18^th February 2025 

Attendees

Mike Earp                               Martyn Gordon                       Leo Kellaway                                 

Helmi Ben Rhouma                 Hedi Zaghouani                       Mike Nash (Chair)

Updates on agreed actions for requirements from 18^th December meeting

Agreed actions for 1.5a

• To document how the MSG has taken gender considerations and inclusiveness into account a short survey of MSG representatives will be commissioned. Short, voluntary and anonymous gender survey was circulated to the MSG on 15^th January by BDO. So far there have been11 responses. The results will be included in the Governance stakeholder engagement template.

Agreed actions for 2.5c

• Initial contact and discussions with Companies House regarding the possibility of expanding beneficial ownership disclosures. UK Secretariat have drafted email to Companies House that will be circulated to the subgroup for comment/agreement.

Updates on agreed actions for requirements from 16^th January meeting

Requirement 2.5c

ICs are required to request, and companies are required to publicly disclose, Beneficial Ownership (BO) information. This applies to corporate entity(ies) that apply for or hold a participating interest in an exploration or production oil, gas or mining license or contract and must include the identity(ies) of their beneficial owner(s); the level of ownership; and details about how ownership or control is exerted. The MSG must disclose any significant gaps or weaknesses in reporting on BO information, including any entities that failed to submit all or some BO information.

• Add specific actions and objectives to identify any gaps or weaknesses in BO disclosure to the UK EITI Workplan. Email to Companies House to cover this?

• UK Secretariat to chase TCE regarding management of BO information for licences and contracts. Followed up with The Crown Estate – still awaiting a response.

Requirement 4.10a

ICs are required to disclose government policies and practices for monitoring oil, gas and mining project costs and managing revenue loss risks. This must include the disclosure of relevant laws, regulations and policies, as well as actions undertaken to monitor costs.

• Add a high-level paper on current government practice and policy and summary of project costs, where available, to the UK EITI website. Leo Kellaway agreed to provide the initial draft and then it will be circulated to the wider subgroup for input/comment before uploading onto the UK EITI website.

Requirement 6.3a

ICs are required to disclose information about the contribution of the extractive industries to the economy for the fiscal year covered by EITI implementation. This must include, where available: 
iv. Employment in the public and private sectors of the extractive industries in absolute terms and as a percentage of the total employment. The information must be disaggregated by gender and occupational level, where available, and further disaggregated by company and project, as well as between local and foreign nationals.

• BDO agreed to provide a paper that lists the data currently available. BDO paper circulated with agenda and discussed.

Requirement 6.4a

ICs are required to disclose an overview of relevant legal provisions and administrative rules governing environmental and social impact management and monitoring in the extractive sector. This must include information on rules regarding environmental permits and licenses, including social, gender and environmental impact assessments, as well as rehabilitation, decommissioning and closure programmes. It must also include information on the roles and responsibilities of relevant government agencies in implementing the rules and regulations.

• UK EITI Secretariat to re-circulate the paper documenting environmental and social impact of extractive activities across the UK extractive sector and chase any responses. This has been actioned – awaiting responses.

• Paper to be cleared by UK EITI Compliance subgroup and MSG and uploaded onto UK EITI website. This will be actioned once the paper has been finalised.

Employment data paper

• A paper on due diligence around employment disclosures drafted by BDO was circulated with the meeting papers. The paper looked at requirement 6.3 (see above) and analyses the employment data to assess, with the MSG and the impact on the EITI scope in future reporting exercises.

• Employment in the public sectors of the extractive industries in absolute terms and as a percentage of total employment – this data is not available, and it was agreed that public sector employment in the extractives sector is zero.