Parliament to debate the impact of financial secrecy in the Overseas Territories on UK communities

Ahead of this critical debate, members of the UK Anti-Corruption Coalition are sounding the alarm on the dirty money, tax evasion, and corruption hidden behind complex offshore structures in the UK's Overseas Territories.

Tuesday 4 November 2025 – On Wednesday 5 November at 9:30am, MPs will debate the severe consequences of financial secrecy in our Overseas Territories. From the Panama Papers to the Kinahan Cartel, High Streets to high rises, there is no shortage of stories demonstrating the devastating effects of the complex (and, in many cases, illegal) offshore financial arrangements of wealthy elites.

Successive governments have failed to address this and compel key Overseas Territories – including the British Virgin Islands – to clean up their act, leaving criminal wealth and illicit assets hidden in our financial system. 

This inaction has devastating impacts on our communities across the UK. Financial secrecy reduces tax revenues – in turn, impacting funding for schools and hospitals; enabling fraud, money laundering and organised crime; and hollowing out communities, to name just a few. Wednesday's debate will call attention to the many consequences of financial secrecy, both throughout the UK and beyond our shores.

Phil Brickell MP, Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Anti-Corruption and Responsible Tax, said:

“Financial secrecy in the Overseas Territories makes life so much tougher for hard-working families right across our nations. From starving the Treasury of vital funding for schools and hospitals, to vape shops blighting our High Streets and property prices being distorted beyond the reach of ordinary people, this issue has many very real and far-reaching consequences for our communities.

“This month will see a crucial Autumn Budget and the Foreign Secretary hosting the annual Joint Ministerial Council with Overseas Territories, so this debate really could not be more timely.”

Margot Mollat, Senior Research & Policy Manager at Transparency International UK, said:

“Ending corporate secrecy is essential to tackling corruption worldwide. For too long, hidden company ownership has allowed kleptocrats and criminals to conceal their stolen wealth. This debate shows the continued strength of feeling across the House of Commons that this needs to change.

“Key financial centres - such as the British Virgin Islands - should honour previous commitments to transparency, and put an end to corporate secrecy by ensuring meaningful access to reliable beneficial ownership data."

Joe Wright, Policy and Advocacy Manager at Tax Justice UK, said:

“The UK is losing at least £15 billion a year to international tax abuse, a loss our communities and crumbling public services cannot afford. As we approach the Budget, this government must take bold action to tackle tax abuse in the UK's Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. by compelling the territories to implement financial transparency measures and equippingHMRC with the resources necessary to tackle tax abuse by the wealthiest and most powerful.”

Background:

• This debate is held weeks before the Foreign Minister is due to meet with representatives from the UK's Overseas Territories, where corporate transparency is expected to be discussed in detail.
• During the previous iteration of this meeting, several Overseas Territories such as the British Virgin Islands, Anguilla, and Bermuda committed to introducing registers of beneficial ownership and granting access to journalists, civil society and others who work on anti-money laundering by June 2025. That deadline has been missed.
• Cayman Islands as well as Turks and Caicos have introduced registers, but these fall short of international standards set out by the EU in its 6th Anti-Money Laundering Directive.
• Overseas Territories first committed to introduce publicly accessible beneficial ownership registers (PARBOs) in 2020, following an amendment to the Sanctions and Anti Money Laundering Act (2018). This law required the UK Government to draft an Order in Council requiring OverseasTerritories to introduce public registers of beneficial ownership if they failed to introduce them voluntarily.The UK expected all jurisdictions to have live registers by December 2023.
• A previous investigation by Transparency International UK found £5.9 billion worth of suspicious funds that had been used to purchase UK properties through shell companies registered in Britain's Overseas Territories. Over 90% of suspect funds invested into the UK via an Overseas Territory went through the British Virgin Islands, equivalent to £5.5 billion in value.
• The scale of money in the UK property sector funnelled through Overseas Territories is just the tip of the iceberg. Previous 2018 research by Transparency International UK, using evidence from 237 corruption cases from the last 30 years, found that shell companies registered in our Overseas Territories had been involved in large corruption cases, inflicting £250 billion of economic damage across 79 different countries. Over 90% of companies from the Overseas Territories involved in these cases were incorporated in the British Virgin Islands.
• Previous research commissioned by the UK Government estimated that corporate transparency reforms in the UK produced data worth up to £3 billion to users across the public and private sectors, with the records accessed over 6 billion times in just one year.
• In June 2025, Financial Action Task Force, the global anti-money laundering standards body, greylisted the British Virgin Islands highlighting several deficiencies in its laws and practices, including:
  • Authorities failing to recognise the role companies incorporated in the Virgin Islands play in economic crime beyond its borders;
  • Inadequate anti-money laundering checks by the trust and company services industry;
  • Lax oversight of the industry from regulators
• TI-UK's has responded to legislative consultations by Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands and Cayman Islands, and subsequent policy update from the British Virgin Islands.
• At the 2024 Joint Ministerial Council, the British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Bermuda, Anguilla, and Turks and Caicos committed to provide access to their registers for those who can demonstrate a legitimate interest in tackling money laundering and its predicate offences – an approach adopted by the EU in its sixth anti-money laundering directive (AMLD6). They agreed to have legislation in place by April 2025, and for the implementation of these registers by the end of June 2025.
• The British Virgin Islands, Bermuda, Anguilla, and Turks and Caicos are among those who have now missed this critical deadline.
• The Cayman Islands has respected the deadline, but their register falls short – as it doesn't allow meaningful and repeated access to journalists, civil society organisations and academics. 
• As of today, only Gibraltar and Montserrat have PARBOs.