(Secretary of State for Foreign
and Commonwealth Affairs): My noble Friend, the
Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (Lord
Ahmad of Wimbledon), has made the following written Ministerial
statement:
On Tuesday 4 and Wednesday 5 December, I chaired the UK-Overseas
Territories Joint Ministerial Council in London, the twentieth
such gathering of OT leaders. The Council was attended by elected
leaders and representatives from Anguilla, Ascension Island,
Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, the
Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Montserrat, Pitcairn, St Helena, the
Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia, Tristan da Cunha
and the Turks and Caicos Islands.
The key themes of discussion at this year’s Council were
preparations for the UK’s exit from the European Union; financial
services, including beneficial ownership registers; future
economic growth, focussing on trade and investment; the
constitutional relationship with the UK; the Global Britain
agenda; passport issues; safeguarding of vulnerable persons and
natural disaster resilience management.
Ministerial colleagues from the Departments for International
Development (The Rt. Hon Lord Bates), Exiting the European Union
(Robin Walker MP), International Trade (George Holingbery MP),
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Thérèse Coffey MP) and Her
Majesty’s Treasury (The Rt. Hon MP) attended the
discussions, as did the Minister for the Constitution (Chloe
Smith MP). I held bilateral meetings with Territory leaders. The
Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (The Rt.
Hon Sir , KCMG MP) met Members of the
Falklands Islands Legislative Assembly.
The Council agreed priorities and set out a number of important
commitments and areas for joint work in the year ahead.
We continued our dialogue on the implications for the Overseas
Territories of the UK’s departure from the EU and reiterated our
objective to achieve an outcome that works for all parts of the
British family. We will seek to ensure the security and economic
sustainability of the Overseas Territories is preserved and
strengthened post- Brexit. We discussed how we can better promote
the Overseas Territories as part of the global British family by
using the GREAT Campaign, bringing the richness and diversity of
the territories to our shared international British brand. We
reiterated the UK’s commitment to the OTs as a vital part of the
British family, and discussed how to ensure the constitutional
arrangements work effectively to promote the best interests of
each individual Territory and of the UK.
We welcomed the progress made by the Overseas Territories who are
committed to implement recommendations made by the Code of
Conduct Group, with the outcome that the territories would not be
placed on the “tax blacklist”. We acknowledged that there have
been huge challenges and have recognised the ongoing issues. We
highlighted the importance of continued engagement with the EU
Commission and underlined that the delivery of legislation is of
paramount importance.
The press statement reflects the commitment of the Governments of
the Overseas Territories and the UK to continue to work in
partnership to achieve the vision set out in the June 2012 White
Paper: The Overseas Territories: Security, Success and
Sustainability.
In line with our commitment in the White Paper, we will continue
to report to Parliament on progress by Government departments.
