Asked by: Ian Roome (Liberal Democrat - North Devon)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, with reference to the Sanctions and Anti‑Money Laundering Act 2018, what steps his Department will take to ensure British Overseas Territories implement public registers of beneficial ownership in a timely fashion; and what assessment he has made of the potential impact of legitimate interest access to beneficial ownership registers on levels of transparency.
Answered by Stephen Doughty - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Please refer to my Written Ministerial Statement of 3 July which provides an update and details of next steps.
We have made very clear to our partners in the remaining Overseas Territories the importance of delivering on the previously committed to deadlines, and have offered technical support to achieve this. We have communicated that we expect rapid and robust action to be taken, given the crucial importance of tackling illicit finance and increasing transparency. We have set out that we expect access to be granted to a wide range of legitimate users, that registers should enable proactive investigations and should act as a deterrent to those seeking to conceal illicit gains.
Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office officials have conducted an in-house assessment of the latest policies and proposals from these Overseas Territories against the discussions at the Joint Ministerial Council in November 2024. In addition, we have reviewed feedback from a range of external stakeholders including expert NGOs and parliamentarians. We have also considered emerging international modalities which cover legitimate interest access registers.
Asked by: Ian Roome (Liberal Democrat - North Devon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to amend the eligibility requirements for free NHS prescriptions, in the context of increases to the State Pension age.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department currently has no plans to align the upper age prescription charge exemption with the State Pension age.
Asked by: Ian Roome (Liberal Democrat - North Devon)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many armed forces recruits have received a conditional offer letter within 10 days from the (a) Army, (b) Royal Navy and (c) Royal Air Force since 1 January 2025.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
Following the announcement by the Secretary of State for Defence in September 2024 of the ambition to make a conditional offer of employment to candidates within 10 days, and a provisional training start date within 30 days if they desire it, the Armed Forces have been focused on implementing this initiative into their recruitment pipelines. Significant work to expedite basic eligibility checks has been required to ensure an appropriate level of candidate checks is completed before conditional offers are issued, and they are working to expedite checks. I will make further announcements on progress in due course.