Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if he will make it his policy to publish a deadline for the implementation public registers of beneficial ownership in the Overseas Territories.

At the Joint Ministerial Council (JMC) in November 2024, the Falkland Islands and St Helena committed to join Montserrat and Gibraltar in implementing fully public registers by April 2025.

Other OTs, including the British Virgin Islands, Cayman, Bermuda, Anguilla and Turks & Caicos Islands, agreed to implement registers of beneficial ownership, accessible to those with a legitimate interest, by June 2025. The details of this commitment are set out in the JMC communique published on gov.uk. We are working with OT Governments to ensure proposals for the registers meet the requirements agreed at the Joint Ministerial Council.

Our expectation is that all OTs will ultimately implement registers that are fully accessible to the public.