(Lab):...Most troubling of all is the claim trumpeted in
the strategy document:
“We will put transparency at the heart of our approach to
government. This will include continuing to champion the adoption
of public registers of company beneficial ownership and working
with the UK’s overseas territories and Crown
Dependencies to implement strengthened arrangements. It is our
ambition to ensure all countries adopt public registers”.
Since then, an amendment has been moved in Parliament. We note,
for example, that only after the Skripal outrage in Salisbury did
the Government yield to all-party pressure and bring
the overseas territories, such as the British
Virgin Islands and others, into the net of a public register—to
yelps of pain from the overseas territories. Equally, when faced with
a similar all-party coalition in the other place to make the
Crown dependencies have public registers, the Government
unexpectedly withdrew a whole Bill, to which the all-party
coalition had tacked the question of the Crown dependencies. If
we believe that sunlight is the best disinfectant, and that we
should set a great example ourselves, coming to the table with
clean hands when we lecture the developing world, we should
clearly look carefully at what we have done on transparency, with
regard to the overseas territories and the Crown
dependencies—Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man—or we shall
rightly be accused of hypocrisy. Dickens defined hypocrisy as a
signpost that points the way to go but does not go there itself.
We should be well aware of that danger. Our record is good, but
there are omissions and problems of which we should be well
aware...
(Lab):...At the time of the Salisbury attack, Global
Witness analysed cash flows from Russia, which revealed that £68
billion had been invested in the UK’s
overseas territories, with the British Virgin
Islands the second most popular destination for money leaving
Russia. As my noble friend Lord Anderson highlighted, Parliament
forced the Government to require the overseas
territories to bring in public registers of
company owners by 2020...
The Minister of State, Department for International
Development (Lord Bates) (Con):...The noble Lord,
, talked about
the role of overseas territories and the Crown
dependencies as financial centres and asked what is being done in
that area. They are committed to global transparency standards
such as the provision of information to law enforcement and for
the automatic exchange of tax information. We expect
the overseas territories to have fully
functioning public registers by 2023...
To read the whole debate, CLICK
HERE
