In a written statement to the House of Commons Hammond reported the cross-agency taskforce has ‘led the international acquisition of high-quality, significant and credible data on offshore activity in Panama’, claiming that the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) had not initially made available all the material it held.

As a result, Hammond said 22 individuals are under investigation for tax evasion, while 43 high net worth individuals have been put under special review while their links to Panama are further investigated.

The taskforce has identified a number of leads relevant to a major insider-trading operation led by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and supported by the National Crime Agency (NCA), as well as identifying two new UK properties and a number of companies relevant to an NCA financial sanctions enquiry. In addition, the specialist inquiry has established links to eight active Serious Fraud Office (SFO) investigations.

The taskforce has identified nine potential professional enablers of economic crime, all of whom have links with known criminals, Hammond said. It has identified 26 offshore companies whose beneficial ownership of UK property was previously concealed, and whose financial activity has been identified to the NCA as potentially suspicious.

Currently the taskforce is in contact with 64 firms to determine their links with Mossack Fonseca, the law firm which was the source of the data leaks, to establish potential further avenues for investigation. Hammond said a number of individuals had come forward to settle their affairs in advance of taskforce partners taking action.

Hammond said: ‘In its short existence, the taskforce has added greatly to the UK’s understanding of the ever-more complex and contrived structures that are being developed to mask offshore tax evasion and economic crime.

‘This intelligence will ensure that the UK remains uniquely placed to contribute to the international effort to uncover, and take action, on wrongdoing, regardless of how deeply hidden the arrangements are, as well as identify those jurisdictions where regulatory oversight requires improvement.’

The taskforce was set up in April this year, with funding of £10m, and is jointly led by HMRC and the NCA, with investigators, compliance specialists and analysts from HMRC, the NCA, the SFO, and the FCA.

Hammond said it has established a joint financial analysis centre (JFAC) which has developed ‘cutting-edge software tools and techniques’ to work on the data and intelligence it has accessed.

Taskforce members are present in Panama, using established relationships with the Panamanian authorities, and working with diplomatic colleagues, to offer support to analyse all the available data. Taskforce members have also worked with international partners as part of the Joint International Tax Shelter Information Centre to exchange information and intelligence as part of the wider international effort

‘The proactive acquisition of data, alongside the establishment of the JFAC, has enabled the taskforce to identify a number of areas for further investigation across the full range of tax and economic crime, as well as links to organised crime, which will be the focus of its work over the coming months,’ Hammond reported.