Home Secretary praises island for Exchange of Notes sharing

Mr Javid said an information sharing agreement with Guernsey, Jersey, the Isle of Man and six British Overseas Territories ensured rapid access to ownership information on companies held on registers in the jurisdictions.

It had aided criminal investigations, said the Home Secretary as he published a review into the Exchange of Notes information sharing system.

The review itself highlighted good practice by the Crown Dependencies and Bermuda – a conclusion that might surprise campaigners who claim the islands have not done enough on transparency.

Guernsey’s most senior politician Gavin St Pier said he was not ‘remotely surprised’ by the review’s finding that EoN had proven highly valuable to UK law enforcement agencies.

‘Next step is for UK to improve the quality of its own database by regulating company service providers to ensure data is verified and up to date,’ he added in posts on Twitter.

With a nod to local plans to introduce a publicly accessible register, Deputy St Pier also said: ‘Guernsey can and will help develop global standards of transparency.’

The Exchange of Notes between the UK, Crown Dependencies, and participating British Overseas Territories came into force in July 2017.

It allows requests to be made by law enforcement agencies for information in relation to the beneficial ownership of companies registered in participating jurisdictions.

‘UK Law Enforcement Agencies report that the EoN have been extremely useful in accessing the information needed to support ongoing criminal investigations,’ Mr Javid told MPs in a written parliamentary statement to accompany the review covering the first 18 months of the scheme’s operation.

Giving an overview of the system, he said: ‘This process gives UK LEAs rapid access to beneficial ownership information on over half a million entities based in the three CDs and six participating OTs. This represents 87% of businesses in scope of the scheme.’

With Guernsey, Alderney and Jersey already covering 100% of entities on their beneficial ownership databases, Mr Javid said plans were in place for the overall scheme to reach full coverage by December 2020.

‘In addition, these jurisdictions have reciprocal access to information on 3.8m. UK entities through the UK’s people with significant control public register.’

Mr Javid said that 296 requests were made during the first 18 months of operation, adding ‘This equates on average to nearly four requests per week. Responses were provided for all requests made, and all but four were provided within the agreed time frame.

‘As many of these requests are in support of long-running investigations, it is too soon to quantify the full outcome in terms of successful investigations, but interim indicators are positive.’

His statement also set out recommendations of the review, including that ‘consideration and discussion on the appropriateness of expanding the scope of EoN to include civil tax cases or beneficial ownership information for trusts should continue’.

The review singled out the Crown Dependencies and Bermuda for praise – including registration being ‘an integral part of the incorporation process to establish a new entity’ unlike other jurisdictions.

‘The reviewers also noted an example of best practice in ensuring that registers remain complete once fully implemented. Bermuda, Guernsey, Jersey and the Isle of Man have processes which mean that you cannot create a new entity without being entered onto the beneficial ownership register, ensuring complete coverage of new entities.’

The review also said: ‘Some jurisdictions have systems which also allow more sophisticated searches to take place.

‘For example, the Isle of Man, Guernsey, Jersey and Bermuda are able to search by additional criteria including nationality of the owner.’