UK to ‘encourage’ transparency among the Crown Dependencies
THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT has told parliament that it will ‘encourage’ the Crown Dependencies to voluntarily introduce new financial transparency rules – recognising the islands’ ‘self-governing’ status.
Home Office minister Baroness Williams of Trafford also said that Guernsey, Jersey and the Isle of Man had confirmed that they would develop public registers of company beneficial ownership once such registers had been established as a global norm.
The government’s position was set out in a response to a question from peer Lord Taylor of Warwick who asked what plans the government had – if any – to introduce measures to ‘improve’ the transparency of company ownership in the Crown Dependencies.
‘The Home Office leads on the government’s relationship with the Crown Dependencies on beneficial ownership,’ said Baroness Williams.
‘The Crown Dependencies have confirmed they will develop public registers of company beneficial ownership once it has been established as a global norm.
‘In October 2018 the government launched an international beneficial ownership transparency campaign to shift global norms by encouraging and supporting more countries to implement free to access and publicly available company beneficial ownership registers by 2023.’
She added: ‘In line with this campaign, the government will encourage the Crown Dependencies to voluntarily introduce measures to improve the transparency of their company ownership.
‘It is important to note that the Crown Dependencies are not part of the UK.
‘They are self-governing dependencies of the Crown with their own legislative assemblies, administrative, fiscal and legal systems and courts of law.’
The comments come after weeks of controversy over attempts by a cross-party group of MPs to force the Crown Dependencies to introduce such public registers.
Led by Tory Andrew Mitchell and Labour’s Dame Margaret Hodge, the MPs have insisted the UK parliament has the power to legislate for the islands on the matter.
The Crown Dependencies have warned such action could breach constitutional conventions that the UK parliament does not normally legislate on domestic matters for Guernsey, Jersey and the Isle of Man.
