Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 13 November 2017 to Question 111541, on companies: ownership what access the Government has to registers of beneficial ownership in each British Overseas Territory.

​Central registers of beneficial ownership information or similarly effective arrangements are in place in Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands and Gibraltar.

Under bilateral arrangements concluded in 2016 with Overseas Territories with financial centres, UK law enforcement authorities have the automatic right of access to beneficial ownership information held on companies incorporated in those Territories within 24 hours or one hour in urgent cases.

Anguilla and the Turks and Caicos Islands have not yet established a central register or similarly effective arrangement. We continue to monitor progress and to offer support to both these Territories.

Montserrat has committed to establish a public central register and is expected to introduce new legislation to implement its central register shortly.