Extracts from yesterday's committee stage debate in the
House of Lords on the Criminal Finances Bill
167: After Clause 48, insert the following new Clause—
“Public registers of beneficial ownership of companies in the
Overseas Territories
After section 2A of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002, insert—“2AA
Duty of the Secretary of State: Public registers of the
beneficial ownership of companies registered in Overseas
Territories(1) It shall be the duty of the Secretary of State, in
the furtherance of the purposes of—(a) this Act; and(b) Part 3 of
the Criminal Finances Act 2017,to take the steps set out in this
section.(2) The first step is that, between the date on which
this section comes into force and 31 December 2018, the Secretary
of State must provide all reasonable assistance to the
governments of—(a) Anguilla;(b) Bermuda;(c) the British Virgin
Islands;(d) the Cayman Islands;(e) Montserrat; and(f) the Turks
and Caicos Islands,to enable each of those governments to
establish a publicly accessible register of the beneficial
ownership of companies registered in that government's
jurisdiction.(3) The second step is that, no later than 31
December 2019, the Secretary of State must prepare an Order in
Council, and take all reasonable steps to ensure its
implementation, in respect of any Overseas Territories listed in
subsection (2) that have not by that date introduced a publicly
accessible register of the beneficial ownership of companies
within their jurisdiction, requiring them to adopt such a
register.(4) In this section a “publicly accessible register of
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 (information about people with
significant control).””
(CB)...The amendment
addresses those offshore financial centres that are British
Overseas Territories. It excludes the Crown dependencies, where
the constitutional issues are more complex. It calls for the
Government to go further than they currently propose to do in
ensuring that all the overseas territories that have financial
centres—Anguilla, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman
Islands, Montserrat and the Turks and Caicos—allow public access
to registers of beneficial ownership....
To read the full debate, CLICK
HERE
