MOST people believe companies should publicly disclose how much tax they pay, according to a new study.

A survey of 2,000 adults also showed that three in five said the Government and local councils should consider a company's ethics when awarding contracts.

Tax conduct is rarely, if ever, factored into public procurement, said the Fair Tax Mark, which encourages organisations to pay the right amount of corporation tax.

More than 4,500 shops and offices are accredited.

Paul Monaghan, chief executive of the Fair Tax Mark, said: "Our research has found that the majority of the UK public want to see radical change in the area of tax reporting and auditing, and they want to see public procurement take much more account of responsible tax planning.

"Following the collapse of Carillion, two parliamentary committees recently called on the Government to carry out an ambitious and wide-ranging set of reforms to reset our systems of corporate accountability, and urged them to refer the statutory audit market to the Competition and Markets Authority.

"Our research indicates that the public would be strongly in favour of this, but would also like to see companies of all sizes reporting on the profits made and taxes paid.

"Moreover, they would like to see public procurement leveraged to encourage responsible tax planning."