Written Ministerial Statement on diplomatic missions and international organisations with an outstanding national non-domestic rates bill over £10,000
Philip Hammond reports on diplomatic missions and international organisations with outstanding National Non-Domestic Rate Bills over £10,000
The majority of diplomatic missions in the United Kingdom pay the National Non-Domestic Rates (NNDR) due from them. Diplomatic missions are obliged to pay only 6% of the total NNDR value of their offices. This represents payment for specific services received such as street cleaning and street lighting.
Representations by the Protocol Directorate of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to missions in 2015 led to the settlement of outstanding debts by a number of missions.
As at 14 July 2015, the total amount of outstanding NNDR payments, due before 31 December 2014, owed by foreign diplomatic missions as advised by the Valuation Office Agency is £743,858, an increase of 2.5% over the 2013 figure, as reported in the 2014 WMS (£726,076). However, £99,683 of this outstanding debt is owed by Iran – which is in the process of reopening its embassy in the UK, and Syria – which is not currently represented in the UK. We have therefore been unable to pursue these debts. Three missions are responsible for just under a third of the remainder. We shall continue to urge those with NNDR debt to pay their dues.
Missions listed below owed over £10,000 in respect of NNDR.
| High Commission for the People’s Republic of Bangladesh | £98,963 |
| Sierra Leone High Commission | £59,949 |
| Embassy of the Republic of the Sudan | £53,466 |
| Embassy of the Republic of Zimbabwe | £35,599 |
| Uganda High Commission | £29,549 |
| Embassy of the Republic of Liberia | £24,892 |
| Embassy of the Republic of Iraq | £17,755 |
| Embassy of the State of Qatar | £18,883 |
| Embassy of Ukraine | £18,720 |
| Embassy of the Republic of Albania | £18,374 |
| Embassy of the Republic of the Philippines | £16,691 |
| Embassy of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia | £16,772 |
| Embassy of the Arab Republic of Egypt | £14,676 |
| Ghana High Commission | £14,170 |
| High Commission for the Republic of Cameroon | £13,483 |
| Embassy of the United Arab Emirates | £13,447 |
| High Commission for the Republic of Zambia | £12,797 |
| Embassy of the Republic of Angola | £12,435 |
| Kenya High Commission | £10,555 |
Figures for previous years are available in the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs’ written statement to the House on 15 July 2014, Official Report, column 55WS.