New clause 6—Public registers of beneficial
ownership of companies registered in British Overseas
Territories—
“(1) For the purposes of the detection, investigation or
prevention of money laundering, the Secretary of State must
provide all reasonable assistance to the governments of the
British Overseas Territories to enable each of those governments
to establish a publicly accessible register of the beneficial
ownership of companies registered in each government’s
jurisdiction.
(2) The Secretary of State must, no later than 31 December
2020, prepare a draft Order in Council requiring the government
of any British Overseas Territory that has not introduced a
publicly accessible register of the beneficial ownership of
companies within its jurisdiction to do so.
(3) The draft Order in Council under subsection (2) must set
out the form that the register must take.
(4) If an Order in Council contains requirements of a kind
mentioned in subsection (2)—
(a) it must be laid before Parliament after being made,
and
(b) if not approved by a resolution of each House of
Parliament before the end of 28 days beginning with the day on
which it is made, it ceases to have effect at the end of that
period (but without that affecting the power to make a new Order
under this section).
(5) In calculating a period of 28 days for the purposes of
subsection (4), no account is to be taken of any time during
which Parliament is dissolved or prorogued or during which both
Houses are adjourned for more than four days.
(6) For the purposes of this section, “British Overseas
Territories” means a territory listed in Schedule 6 of the
British Nationality Act 1981.
(7) For the purposes of this section, “a publicly accessible
register of the beneficial ownership of companies” means a
register which, in the opinion of the Secretary of State,
provides information broadly equivalent to that available in
accordance with the provisions of Part 21A of the Companies Act
2006.”
This new clause would require the Secretary of State to take
steps to provide that British Overseas Territories establish
publicly accessible registers of the beneficial ownership of
companies.
(Bishop Auckland)
(Lab):...In 2014, wrote to the British overseas
territories recommending that they introduce public registers—the
UK introduced a public register in 2016—and new clause 6 sets out a
timetable for them to do so by 2020. Money laundering through
London is estimated by the National Crime Agency to total
£90 billion, and it is facilitated by the secret ownership of
companies allowed in tax havens. Unfortunately, the British
overseas territories and Crown dependencies are major actors. They
enable the corrupt to live in comfort on their ill-gotten gains and
facilitate tax avoidance and evasion on a spectacular scale. The UK
is estimated to lose £18.5 billion each year. I am only surprised
that the Chancellor of the Exchequer did not also sign new clause
6...
...I certainly agree with that. Obviously, the law
enforcement agencies—the National Crime Agency, the police and the
Serious Fraud Office—need more resources. They would then be in a
better position to crack down on this money laundering...
Dame (Barking)
(Lab):...Let me take Members through the argument, because
it is important that we understand what we are dealing with. First,
on the scale of the problem we are tackling, the National Crime
Agency reckons that around £90 billion a year is laundered through
the UK. We know that developing countries lose three times as much
in tax avoidance than they get in all the international aid that is
available to them. Half the entities cited in the Panama papers
were corporations registered in just one of our overseas
territories: the British Virgin Islands. We know that, in the past
10 years, £68 billion has flowed out of Russia into our overseas
territories. That is seven times more going to the overseas
territories than has come to Britain. We know that there are 85,000
properties here in the UK that are owned by companies registered in
our tax havens, half of which are in just two constituencies in
London, and a sample survey done by Transparency International
suggests that two out five of those properties have Russian
owners...
Mr (Sutton Coldfield)
(Con):...New clause 6 builds further on the coalition
Government’s important work, including at the UK-led G8 summit,
in bearing down on money laundering, corruption, tax evasion,
terrorist financing and fraud. Much of the money, as the Paradise
papers and the Panama papers make clear, passes through British
overseas territories. Public registers help us to understand who
owns what and how these ill-gotten gains are flowing. The House
should be in no doubt that a huge amount of this money is filthy
lucre. The National Crime Agency has calculated that
£90 billion is laundered through the UK each year—that is truly
startling. This laundering can only be done, by and large,
through British overseas territories, which are central to this
nefarious activity...
To read the whole debate, CLICK HERE
