UK Parliament agrees to Public Register for OTS
Through the amendment of the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Bill, the UK government would in effect be ordering the overseas territories to change how they run part of their financial services sector, even though this has been formally entrusted to the governments of the territories in their constitutions.
The bill was debated in the House of Commons today, May 1, 2018 and saw the United Kingdom Government of Theresa M. May make a major U-turn in accepting public ownership registers for UK overseas territories.
Sir Alan Duncan, in his speech, admitted that OTs have registers that are available to the law enforcement agencies; however, the government recognises the need to tackle fraud.
OTs have their own legislatures
“But the economic impact on the overseas territories will be significant. They have their own legislatures. They are not represented in this parliament. Legislating on their behalf would disenfranchise them,” he says, adding that he UK does not want to legislate directly for them.
“But the government has listened to the views of MPs. It is the majority view in this House that the overseas territories should have public registers of beneficial ownership. So the government will not vote against the [Margaret] Hodge amendment, he says.
VI deemed largely compliant by OECD- Lorna G. Smith
Representatives from the British Overseas Territories have been saying for months that they would strongly resist what they regard as interference in their affairs.
And according to International Investment today, May 1, 2018, the passions on both sides of the debate were demonstrated this morning on the BBC’s Radio 4 morning news programme, Today, when Labour MP Dame Margaret Hodge explained her reasons for introducing her full public disclosure of beneficial ownership amendment to the so-called Sanctions and Anti-Money-Laundering Bill.
Her views were strongly challenged by Lorna G. Smith OBE, Executive Director of British Virgin Islands Finance – leaving Radio 4 presenter John Humphrys to invite Hodge and Smith to continue their debate off-air, once their allotted time was up.
Asked by Humphrys why she was “so exorcised” by the issue, Hodge explained that “Britain sits at the hub of the largest network of secretive organisations in the world, and that is our Overseas Territories, the tax havens”, and that “secrecy breeds wrong-doing”.
“Transparency is a power tool, John, and if we could just open the registers of beneficial ownership, showing who knows what, and where the money flows, I think at a stroke we would start to destroy that criminal activity that takes place,” Hodge added.
She went on to note that “half the entities that were mentioned in the Panama Papers were of companies located in the British Virgin Isles” and that “85,000 properties here in the UK are owned by companies that are located in our tax havens”, the owners of which companies aren’t known, but which a recent study of a representative sample of which had suggested four out of 10 were owned by Russian entities.
Mrs Smith, the wife of Premier Dr The Honourable D. Orlando Smith (AL), retorted that Hodge’s claims were “totally false”, and that the British Virgin Islands – “as Dame Margaret Hodge very well knows” – had been “deemed largely compliant by the [Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development], the Financial Action Task Force, and all of the [other] international organisations”, thus putting it “in the same league as the United Kingdom and the United States”.
The VI’s concern about the possible insistence that it make its beneficial ownership register public, Smith added, was that the requirement would represent a “constitutional infringement” which would also “smack of colonialism”, and that it would be taking place against the backdrop of the fact that the jurisdiction was “doing nothing wrong”.
Time to leave the UK?
Meanwhile, Premier Smith, in a statement on April 30, 2018, said he rejects the idea that the VI’s democratically elected Government should be superseded by the United Kingdom Parliament, especially in the area of financial services which has been formally entrusted to the BVI people. It is repugnant to the constitutional arrangements that United Kingdom made when our new Constitution was approved in 2007 and would certainly undermine the constitutional relationship and destroy any trust between the BVI and the United Kingdom.
Dr Smith even suggested that the VI may not allow the UK to undermine its constitution and may be seeking the high road of self-determination to protect its financial services industry.
“...you will be asking what my Government will do if the amendment passes. The vote tomorrow [today] does not determine the future of the BVI Financial Services Industry and I can assure you that our absolute focus will be on our right to self-determination and the protection of our economy.”
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29 Responses to “UK Parliament agrees to Public Register for OTS”
Neville and Laverty must be turning in their graves at seeing their baby torn apart.
Mr Premier just like how the insurance companies, some of the banks and the Electricity department are taking advantage of the people with a "might is right" mentality while you sit idle by doing nothing not bringing legislation to control them. You see how it is when others make decisions that affect you even if morally they are wrong and you dont have the power to stop them or for your voice to be heard and listen to.
We dont need independence we need an election to clean house in the house of assembly.
If it had not been for the Government revenue generated by agriculture, we would have been completely mad to have made life so difficult for businesses here to operate in tourism or finance. Fortunately, we can just wave all those people goodbye knowing that we have such a vibrant agricultural sector to keep us going.
painted on a BIG warhead, and makes London broil with it. Anti democracy, anti privacy nazis. Go to hell.
privacy period. If you disagree, then make the walls of your house transparent, don't wear clothing, and demand
that everyone who does either turn out their pockets or pull their pants down to appease you. You're a smart
person - think it through.