Former bishop adds voice to public register debate
A FORMER Bishop of Oxford has joined the debate raging over calls for the Channel Islands to introduce controversial transparency rules – but been rebuffed by a British minister.
Lord Harries of Pentregarth, who was Bishop of Oxford between 1987 and 2006 in the Church of England, raised the issue of public registers of beneficial ownership in the House of Lords.
Through a written question to ministers, he asked the government when ‘they plan to introduce a public register of beneficial ownership for the Crown Dependencies and other tax havens for which the UK has responsibility’.
Baroness Williams of Trafford, a minister in the Home Office, said: ‘It is important to note that the Crown Dependencies are self-governing jurisdictions with their own legislative assemblies, administrative, fiscal and legal systems and courts of law.
‘They have confirmed they will develop public registers of company beneficial ownership once it has been established as a global norm.’
She added: ‘In October 2018, the UK 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.
‘In line with this campaign, the UK Government will encourage the Crown Dependencies to voluntarily introduce measures to improve the transparency of their company ownership.’
The British Overseas Territories were also self-governing jurisdictions, said Baroness Williams. ‘However, in accordance with the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2018, the UK Government will prepare an Order in Council by the end of 2020 requiring all Overseas Territories to have fully functioning publicly accessible registers in place by the end of 2023.
‘The UK Government will work consensually with the Overseas Territories on introducing publicly accessible registers, which includes through technical workshops.’
Previously, P&R president Gavin St Pier has highlighted how the island’s existing register was effective, while stressing Guernsey wanted to ‘work with the UK Government and the relevant international bodies to achieve the objective of developing standards to increase the effectiveness of registers of beneficial ownership around the world’.
In April, Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg warned that attempts by the UK parliament to legislate for the Crown Dependencies on the issue of public registers of beneficial ownership ran contrary to established constitutional conventions. That was ‘bad law-making’, said
Mr Rees-Mogg.
