{"id":8094,"date":"2024-11-18T09:16:38","date_gmt":"2024-11-18T09:16:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/uk-mps-call-for-transparency-crack-down-at-overseas-territories-summit\/"},"modified":"2024-11-18T09:16:38","modified_gmt":"2024-11-18T09:16:38","slug":"uk-mps-call-for-transparency-crack-down-at-overseas-territories-summit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/?p=8094","title":{"rendered":"UK MPs call for transparency crack down at overseas territories summit"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Forty MPs have called on the foreign secretary to press for faster progress in tackling tax evasion in the British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies ahead of a ministerial summit this week. <\/p>\n

The cross-party MPs, including former cabinet ministers Andrew Mitchell and Liam Byrne, have written to David Lammy demanding that he press for speedier establishment of public registers of beneficial ownership in the territories and dependencies.<\/p>\n

Their call comes ahead of the annual Joint Ministerial Council on November 19 \u2014 the first such meeting since Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories such as the Cayman Islands and British Virgin Islands missed a December 2023 target for implementation of the registers. <\/p>\n

Disclosure of the data was mutually agreed following a 2018 UK parliament vote that called for the records to be made public. <\/p>\n

The parliamentarians argued in their letter that publishing the registers, which record who ultimately owns or controls a company, would enable journalists and investigators to follow money held offshore to uncover economic crime, rather than relying on leaks such as the Panama Papers. <\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
<\/source>\"A<\/picture>
Forty MPs have written to the foreign secretary <\/span> \u00a9 All Party Parliamentary Group for Anti-Corruption and Responsible Tax <\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
\n
<\/source>\"Signatories<\/picture>
The MPs include former cabinet ministers and current select committee chairs <\/span> \u00a9 All Party Parliamentary Group for Anti-Corruption and Responsible Tax <\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Lammy campaigned on the issue in opposition and work has progressed since Labour took office in July. Monserrat implemented a publicly accessible register last month and St Helena is due to follow suit next year.<\/p>\n

Other Overseas Territories have agreed to implement legitimate access registers, which grants access to journalists and NGOs \u2014 a move the UK government regards as an interim step towards a fully public register. <\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the Cayman Islands government said it was continuing to work towards an \u201cenhanced beneficial ownership framework\u201d by the end of 2024, with Deputy Premier Andr\u00e9 Ebanks adding that this was a clear step \u201ctowards greater [financial] transparency\u201d.<\/p>\n

Natalio D Wheatley, premier and minister of financial services of the British Virgin Islands, said it continued \u201cto make preparations to introduce public access to beneficial ownership information where there is a legitimate interest\u201d.<\/p>\n

However, Mitchell, the former deputy foreign secretary, said the missed deadlines were \u201cundermining UK ministers and parliament.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cThe British family of nations and territories who enjoy our laws, flag and monarch must also accept our values,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n

In a speech to the International Public Policy Institute in May, Lammy, then the shadow foreign secretary, called for \u201ca clear time-bound action plan\u201d to bring all UK Overseas Territories into \u201cfull compliance with all transparency requirements\u201d. <\/p>\n

The letter \u2014 which was co-ordinated by Joe Powell MP, chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Anti-Corruption and Responsible Tax \u2014 asks that Lammy \u201craise the matter of registers directly with Ministers at the council\u201d, following his commitment to make the \u201cUK the world\u2019s foremost anti-corruption champion\u201d.<\/p>\n

<\/source><\/source>\"Planting<\/picture>
Some Overseas Territories have agreed to implement legitimate access registers, which grants access to journalists and NGOs <\/span> \u00a9 Pomeroon Trading<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In 2018, Transparency International identified 237 cases of corruption, worth more than \u00a3250bn, which were enabled by companies based in the Overseas Territories. <\/p>\n

TI has also linked \u00a3830 million worth of property in the UK\u2019s offshore financial centres to individuals close to Russian President Vladimir Putin or Russians accused of corruption.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Margot Mollat, senior policy Manager at TI, said corporate secrecy in the territories continued to play \u201ca critical role in enabling corruption, money laundering and the evasion of tax and sanctions on a global scale\u201d.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said the government had made tackling illicit finance \u201ca priority since day one\u201d, adding: \u201cAs the Foreign Secretary has said, he is taking up the issue of public registers of beneficial ownership with full vigour.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free Forty MPs have called on the foreign secretary to press for faster progress in tackling tax evasion in the British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies ahead of a ministerial summit this week. The cross-party MPs, including former cabinet ministers Andrew Mitchell and Liam Byrne, have written to David Lammy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8095,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[206],"tags":[583,2682,2680,878,2684,2683,2681],"class_list":{"0":"post-8094","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-financial-crime","8":"tag-call","9":"tag-crack","10":"tag-mps","11":"tag-overseas","12":"tag-summit","13":"tag-territories","14":"tag-transparency"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8094"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8094\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}