The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office
(Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon) (Con): We are also fully
cognisant of the territories’ concerns that the economic impact of
imposing public registers on them will be significant—and these are
not under normal circumstances. As noble Lords know, the British
Virgin Islands, Anguilla and the Turks and Caicos Islands are still
recovering from the two unprecedented category 5 hurricanes of last
September. In the British Virgin Islands, nine out of 20 schools
still remain closed and are accommodating their students in tents.
The tourism industry has experienced a drop of 50% and is only now
starting to recover. There remains a real risk that this will
destabilise the reconstruction efforts of the hurricane affected
territories, and all of this shortly before the next hurricane
season begins in June. Accordingly, our preference would have been
not to legislate in this manner without the territories’ consent,
and let me assure noble Lords that our aim remains to work
consensually and collaboratively with them to achieve the best
possible outcome following the amendment.
As the reaction of the territories and their leaders has
demonstrated, legislating for them without their consent risks
damaging not only our long-standing constitutional arrangements
respecting their autonomy but also our very proactive, positive
and progressive relations with the overseas territories. Let me
assure noble Lords that I have held a number of meetings with
leaders and their London-based representatives since our debates
at Report stage, and I have reaffirmed the importance that the
United Kingdom attaches to our relationship with their
jurisdictions. Equally, I would place on the record our gratitude
to the overseas territories and to the Crown dependencies for the
work that they have undertaken to implement the bilateral
arrangements on the exchange of beneficial ownership information
we concluded with them in 2016. In a relatively short timeframe,
they have passed new primary legislation and delivered
technological improvements to comply with the terms of these
arrangements.
All Crown dependencies have central registers in place. Of the
seven overseas territories with financial centres, Bermuda, the
British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Gibraltar and
the Turks and CaicosIslands already have central
registers or similarly effective systems in place. Montserrat has
also committed to establishing a public register, and we have
recently signed a memorandum of understanding with Anguilla to
fund its electronic search platform. In the case of Anguilla, the
British Virgin Islands and the Turks and Caicos Islands, progress has
been made notwithstanding some of the most challenging
circumstances caused by last year’s hurricanes...
(Con):...I am not
a lawyer but having taken the Maastricht Bill through all its
stages—25 days, three all-night sittings—I researched the legal
situation. It is quite interesting. The Cayman Islands have taken
advice, as they should. The Cayman Islands have a constitution,
enacted in 2009, which guarantees democracy and protects
fundamental rights. For the Westminster Parliament, where the
Cayman Islands have no representation—nor do any of the other
overseas territories—to tell the Cayman Islands what laws to
enact is constitutionally unacceptable. For Westminster so to
legislate is also a breach of well-established constitutional
convention. Westminster does not legislate for the overseas
territories unless it is necessary to implement an international
obligation of the UK, and there is none in this context; or
unless there has been breakdown in civil society, as happened in
the Turks and Caicos—but not, I hasten to say, in
the Cayman Islands. That constitutional convention was recently
applied by Her Majesty’s Government in relation to Bermuda. But
the important point is that Westminster imposing the requirement
for a public register is likely to result in the legitimate,
properly regulated businesses in islands such as the Cayman
Islands moving to less well-regulated jurisdictions because they
do not have public access at all...
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