James Murray

I had a feeling the right hon. Gentleman was going to ask a question along those lines. I will answer it in a moment. I welcome the commitment made by the leaders of the overseas territories in November 2024, which has been referred to by hon. Members, to support the Foreign Secretary’s campaign against illicit finance. As part of that commitment, boosting corporate transparency through registers of beneficial ownership is a core aim in helping to tackle money laundering and tax and sanctions evasion and in helping to foster an open and trusted business environment. Fully public registers of beneficial ownership are already in place in the UK, Gibraltar and Montserrat. My hon. Friend the Member for Kensington and Bayswater asked about the register of overseas entities and whether trust-owned property would be included on those registers. If an entity from an overseas territory owns property in the UK, they would fall under the requirements and would need to declare their beneficial owners. That includes beneficial owners associated with a trust. The register of overseas entities is also being updated this year to grant, on application, access to trust information that is currently restricted from the public. At the joint ministerial council in November 2024, the Government confirmed their expectation that fully public registers of beneficial ownership would be implemented by overseas territories. The Falkland Islands and St Helena committed to implement those by April 2025. Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Anguilla and the Turks and Caicos Islands committed to implement registers of beneficial ownership accessible to those with a legitimate interest by June 2025 at the latest. This approach offers the maximum possible degree of access and transparency while retaining the necessary safeguards to protect the right to privacy in line with respective constitutions. Progress towards delivering on these commitments is under way. The UK Government have been clear to the elected leaders of the overseas territories that we expect registers to be delivered by the deadline and in line with the standard agreed at the joint ministerial council. UK Government officials continue to work in partnership with officials in the overseas territories to support the implementation of these registers, and last month they wrote with further clarifications on the minimum requirements for registers of beneficial ownership. The Government are continually reviewing this issue and will consider carefully what steps to take if registers are not delivered on time and to an acceptable standard. We are aware of the consultation document released by the British Virgin Islands and continue to engage with BVI to improve its proposal, in line with the agreement made at the joint ministerial council. The UK, the Crown dependencies and the overseas territories stand united in condemning the Russian Government’s aggression. We have been working in lockstep to enforce UK sanctions, which hon. Members have mentioned, including by freezing assets across the Crown dependencies and overseas territories. That has helped to implement the UK Government’s sanctions regime, which, to date, has amounted to $9 billion-worth of assets. To support this, the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation has provided significant technical assistance to build capacity in the Crown dependencies and overseas territories. As we have heard in this debate, the push for tax transparency in the overseas territories generates strong views. I recognise that there have been instances in which high net worth individuals and multinational entities have sought to hide their assets and profits in the overseas territories. The overseas territories are working to implement international tax transparency standards and work closely with us to identify tax abuse, to combat money laundering and terrorist financing, and to enforce UK financial sanctions. We must continue to work towards greater tax transparency in the UK, the overseas territories and globally. That includes greater transparency regarding company ownership, as well as the ownership of assets such as cryptoassets and real estate, to ensure the public can see who the beneficial owners are. I thank you again, Mr Turner, I thank all hon. Members who have spoken in the debate and I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Kensington and Bayswater in particular for securing this debate.