British Virgin Islands: Companies

(asked on 19th January 2021) - View Source

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether registers of beneficial ownership will form part of the investigations of his Department's Commission of Inquiry into governance in the British Virgin Islands.


Answered by
Nigel Adams Portrait
Nigel Adams
This question was answered on 25th January 2021

The Commission of Inquiry has been established by the Governor of the British Virgin Islands rather than the UK Government. The Governor's decision has the full support of UK Ministers.

The Governor has established the Commission's Terms of Reference as:

  • to establish whether there is information that corruption, abuse of office or other serious dishonesty in relation to officials, whether statutory, elected or public may have taken place in recent years;
  • if there is such information, to consider the conditions which allowed that corruption, abuse of office or other serious dishonesty to take place and whether they may still exist;
  • if appropriate, to make independent recommendations with a view to improving the standards of governance, to give the people of the Virgin Islands confidence that government is working in a fair, transparent and proper manner;
  • if appropriate, to make independent recommendations with a view to improving the operation of the agencies of law enforcement and justice;
  • should the Commissioner at any time consider that a change to these terms of reference would be beneficial to public welfare in achieving the objectives of the Inquiry, to inform the then Governor of the Virgin Islands at the first opportunity; and
  • to prepare and submit a written report to the then Governor of the Virgin Islands within six (6) months from the commencement of the Inquiry, making all such recommendations as seem fit provided that the Governor may extend the period for submission of the report to a period no longer than 9 months from the date of the Inquiry.

It will be for the Commissioner, Sir Gary Hickinbottom, to determine how best to carry out these Terms.

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