Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment he has made of the progress made on the introduction of a publicly accessible register on beneficial ownership of businesses registered in their jurisdiction by each British Overseas Territory.

At the Overseas Territories Joint Ministerial Council (JMC) in November 2024, the Falkland Islands and Saint Helena committed to implement fully public registers by April 2025. The British Virgin Islands (BVI), Cayman Islands, Bermuda, Anguilla and Turks and Caicos Islands agreed to implement registers of beneficial ownership, accessible to those with a legitimate interest, by June 2025. It remains our expectation that the Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies will ultimately implement fully public registers as those that are already in place in Gibraltar and Montserrat.

I discussed progress on beneficial ownership transparency with Premier Wheatley (BVI) last month. A Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) senior official visited BVI earlier this month and met with government and the finance industry. Every Territory is making progress towards the JMC commitments and FCDO officials are in regular contact with counterparts in the Overseas Territories on their proposals for registers to ensure they meet the agreement made at the JMC. I have and will continue to raise this directly with elected leaders across the Overseas Territories.

The Government is keeping this under close review and will carefully consider what further steps to take if the registers are not delivered as per JMC agreements.