Bill Wilson MSP

Questions have been raised as to why Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish firms have not received a greater share of lucrative Olympic construction contracts. A parliamentary question from Pete Wishart MP revealed that unfair distribution of contracts will mean Scottish companies will miss out on millions of pounds of investment.

Dr Bill Wilson MSP said, “The London Olympics were supposed to bring significant investment to businesses across the UK but this has failed to materialise. Scottish, Northern Irish and Welsh companies will receive just £39.5 million pounds of investment compared with English-based companies who will receive a staggering £5 billion, more than 98% of all the contracts.

“Further to the issue of contracts, the Scottish taxpayer is contributing to the huge bill for the Olympics which will result in a programme of regeneration for London’s East End. In light of this, it is unfortunate that Westminster would deny the Scottish Government the funding needed to regenerate Glasgow’s East End for the Commonwealth Games. The Olympics is effectively a millstone for Scots, taking our tax and lottery money but giving us little back.

“There are still hundreds of millions of pounds to be spent. I urge UK government ministers to make up for the Scottish shortfall in spending and ensure there is a more equitable distribution of contracts.”

Dr Bill Wilson MSP has highlighted Public and Commercial Services Union claims that the UK is significantly damaging the public services of developing countries by fostering corporate tax dodging.

Dr Wilson said, “I lodged a motion in the Scottish Parliament to draw attention to a report in the PCSU’s magazine, View, which pointed out that because many of the world’s tax havens are based in the British Isles, and the City of London supports an army of lawyers and accountants dedicated to helping people dodge tax, the UK can be considered to some extent responsible for poor public services in developing countries.

“If we attack developing countries’ tax bases, which is effectively what results from our lax tax laws and poor enforcement, we are attacking some of the poorest people on the planet.  The colossal sum involved – £250 billion lost from developing countries through tax dodging, of which the UK is responsible for a significant proportion – makes a mockery of our much-vaunted aid budget, which will increase to £7.8 billion by 2010/11.

“If we want to help the poorest on the planet we should concentrate on promoting truly fair trade and on eliminating tax avoidance and evasion.  Furthermore, as I have often pointed out, the latter would help the poorest in our country too.”

Dr Bill Wilson MSP has called on the new UK Government to reverse the previous Labour Government’s sacking of HMRC staff in light of a report suggesting that new employees would more than pay for themselves by helping to recoup an estimated £95 billion lost annually to tax evasion and avoidance.