Neither the use of offshore jurisdictions as a way of mitigating UK tax, nor, unfortunately, the attractiveness of such jurisdictions, by reason of these countries’ independence and general culture of secrecy, particularly banking secrecy, to tax evaders and other criminals are recent phenomena.

Recently, the international focus, by entities such as the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the European Union (EU), has largely been on the issue of secrecy.