Financial Transparency: Overseas Territories

Debate between Lloyd Hatton and Tom Hayes

Wednesday 5th November 2025 Westminster Hall

[Tom Hayes (Bournemouth East) (Lab)]

I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Bolton West (Phil Brickell) for securing this debate. I recognise that there are many British overseas territories that are trying to do the right thing, but as we have heard today, some are magnets for dirty money and safe havens for the wealth of autocratic aggressors, laundering billions under the British flag. We must put a stop to that now.

Let us be clear about what the offshoring of dirty means here at home, in my constituency of Bournemouth East. It is money stolen from the public purse. Billions are being siphoned away that could go directly into our hospitals and schools, and into lower tax rates. This is about our housing crisis. When the super-rich pour their ill-gotten gains into luxury property in our towns and cities, homes sit empty while families cannot afford a roof over their heads. Young people tell me all the time that they have to move away to get on in life because they cannot afford a home in Bournemouth.

This is about our high streets, where there are trust-owned properties, hidden behind secrecy, lying empty and untouchable. Enforcement officers cannot act because they cannot trace the owners. Our high streets lie empty, robbed of vitality. Indeed, where there is activity, it is in the form of candy or vape shops that are so brightly lit they can be seen from space, themselves a front for money laundering. This is about money being stolen from workers’ wages and from the Treasuries of the world’s poorest nations. Twenty years ago we said, “Make Poverty History”; let us make dirty money history too.

Where does the trail lead? Time and again to the British Virgin Islands. After investigation, I can share that the total number of properties in Bournemouth East reported as offshore entities stands at 82. These are owned through entities based in the Crown dependencies or the overseas territories, and unsurprisingly the BVI figures prominently. Where entities are required to declare their beneficial owners, the choice of jurisdictions appears to be selected for their secrecy. Fifty-seven have not reported the price paid—just 25 have done so. Even when beneficial ownership is shared, details about the person benefiting from the property are not always available to the public.

[Lloyd Hatton]

My hon. Friend speaks very eloquently on that point. Living in communities like Bournemouth or my hometown of Weymouth, individuals and businesses seemingly do not have a choice about registering a business and being transparent about who owns a property and what tax they pay. Does he share my concern that unless we see further action here, there will be one rule for the majority of people in our constituencies, and seemingly a whole separate raft of rules for the very wealthiest?

[Tom Hayes]

I could not agree more. In Dorset, we have constituents who want to play by the rules but are routinely let down by the lack of tax transparency.

For the 25 properties that have reported the price paid, the combined total is £7.2 million. With the 57 shrouded in secrecy, the total sums involved will clearly be significant. The BVI should be supporting action to track down crime. Instead, as we have heard, it is giving criminals a head start, tipping them off when there is an investigation under way. Because half the entities exposed in the Panama papers were linked to the BVI, Parliament acted decisively. A deadline was set and the will was clear. However, here we are years later, and Parliament’s will continues to be flouted by the BVI.

My question to the Minister, who I know is an excellent tax transparency campaigner of many years, is: when the remedy exists, are the Government open to using an Order in Council if progress is not made in the next year? Without transparency, we cannot follow the money, and if we cannot follow the money, we cannot truly fund our public services. Without action to correct tax secrecy, we cannot claim to stand for integrity, and without integrity, we cannot truly say that democracy works in the interests of everyone.

NHS Funding: South-west

Debate between Lloyd Hatton and Tom Hayes

Wednesday 11th June 2025 Westminster Hall

[Tom Hayes (Bournemouth East) (Lab)]

In less than a year, this Government have recruited 1,700 new GPs, delivered 3.5 million new appointments and cut waiting lists by more than 200,000. Just today, we heard in the Chamber the good news from the spending review: a record cash investment increase, in real terms, of 3% every year up to 2029, the equivalent of £29 billion extra a year. That will help to put our NHS back on the road to recovery.

In Dorset, we are already seeing the impacts of the investment. Dorset ICB has seen 13,600 extra urgent dental appointments. The public health grant for Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council is up from £22 million in 2024-25 to £23.3 million in 2025-26. There have been four surgeries identified for enhancement in Bournemouth, one of which is in my constituency, and the waiting list for University Hospitals Dorset trust is down by 1,715 between July and now.

[Lloyd Hatton (South Dorset) (Lab)]

I thank my hon. Friend for giving way, and for setting out so clearly the work this Labour Government are doing to fix our NHS. Will he take the opportunity to welcome the investment of some £100 million being delivered by this Labour Government that will totally rebuild the emergency department and critical care unit at Dorset county hospital? Does he share my belief that fixing the front door of our national health service is essential for driving down waiting lists in Dorset?

[Tom Hayes]

My hon. Friend makes a powerful point. I, of course, welcome that investment and it will benefit both his constituents and mine.

We are also seeing significant investments in the Royal Bournemouth hospital. Just yesterday, I was standing on top of the Coast building at the hospital, at the topping-out ceremony. The Coast building will feature 110 new beds across four floors, a larger kitchen and a catering facility. If we look across from the top of that building, we will see the new £91 million Beach building that houses the emergency department from the Royal Bournemouth. Services moved into that building in May, and it will also contain a maternity unit, critical care and a children’s unit, which will be moving in next year.

These developments are all part of a £500 million transformation of University Hospitals Dorset sites, which is much needed and will have a critical impact. These investments across hospitals, and across Dorset, will improve care for the people of our region—for my constituents—and will support our staff, who have been really looking for light at the end of the tunnel after 14 difficult years of Conservative rule, so that they can care for patients in modern, purpose-built facilities.

I would like more. Despite all the investment and the upcoming reform, I would like the funding formula to be changed so that it reflects the age profile of our local area. The south-west and especially areas such as BCP have a much higher older population, but not the funding to match. Our house prices are high but, unlike in Hampshire, UHD staff do not get pay weighting. I would also like to register concerns about proposals to create new subsidiary companies in Dorset and Newcastle. I have called for a pause in those processes, because I have concerns about the terms and conditions. Existing staff who are TUPE-ed into a subco have their existing terms and conditions protected, but I am concerned that when new staff are recruited into subcos, they do not have existing NHS terms and conditions. That could particularly affect lower-paid roles.

In conclusion, I thank the Government for their prioritisation of our NHS. I feel that the NHS is firmly on the path to renewal and is in safe hands.

Bus Services (No. 2) Bill [Lords]

Debate between Lloyd Hatton and Tom Hayes

2nd reading
Monday 2nd June 2025 Commons Chamber

[Tom Hayes (Bournemouth East) (Lab)]

I have been campaigning for a reliable, affordable bus route to Bournemouth airport. As a fellow Dorset MP, does my hon. Friend recognise the need for a dedicated service to the airport every 30 minutes, especially as it increases the number of flights that it will be handling?

[Lloyd Hatton]

I am happy to support my hon. Friend’s campaign, and I will be meeting him shortly to discuss how I can best do so. Given that Bournemouth is the airport nearest to my constituency, my constituents would certainly benefit from that bus connection.

I am desperate for the Bill’s reforms to be introduced as rapidly as possible across South Dorset, which is why I plan to write to the leader of Dorset council to encourage the council to take advantage of the new powers as soon as possible. I look forward to sitting down with its officials to finally improve bus services for the communities in Winfrith, Lulworth, Crossways, the Grove and Southill. I know that other bus passengers and communities throughout my constituency will be looking to the council to use its new powers to improve bus services in their neighbourhood. We cannot keep treating public transport, especially our buses, as an afterthought. For communities across South Dorset, Labour’s bus services Bill provides a chance to finally reconnect and to deliver good-quality bus services to many more passengers. It is time to crack on.