Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 28 November 2017 to Question 115266 on companies: ownership, when (a) Ministers and (b) officials of his Department last held discussions with representatives of the Governments of (i) Anguilla, (ii) Turks and Caicos Islands and (iii) Montserrat on the establishment of a central register or similar arrangement; and what the outcome was of those discussions.

At the Joint Ministerial Council on 28-29 November, the Minister for the Overseas Territories (OTs), Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon, and leaders of the OTs welcomed progress made by those OTs with financial services centres in implementing the arrangements set out in the Exchange of Notes on exchange of beneficial ownership information. They committed, where not already achieved, to expedite work to ensure that the new systems were fully operational and populated.

​Foreign and Commonwealth Office officials also recently discussed progress on the establishment of beneficial ownership systems with representatives of the Governments of Anguilla, the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) and Montserrat. We are finalising with the Government of Anguilla a Memorandum of Understanding on the terms for the provision of UK support for the establishment of their beneficial ownership system. TCI Representatives have confirmed that their Financial Services Commission is at the testing stage for its new central register.

Representatives of Montserrat have confirmed that a Bill requiring legal entities to hold beneficial ownership information and to submit it for inclusion in Montserrat's existing public central register will have its first reading in Montserrat's Legislative Assembly on 19 December 2017. The target date for the addition of beneficial ownership information to the existing register is 1 April 2018.