Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if he will make an assessment of (a) the adequacy of the Cayman Islands’ new Regulations: Beneficial Ownership Transparency (legitimate interest access) regulations 2024, (b) whether those regulations meet the expectations laid out during the Joint Ministerial Council to provide the maximum possible degree of access and transparency, (c) whether Bermuda’s regulations are aligned with international standards set out in the EU’s 6th Anti-Money Laundering Directive and (d) whether (i) case-by-case applications and (ii) the introduction of fees between $30 and $100 will hinder journalists and NGOs from accessing beneficial ownership information to combat money laundering and its predicate offences.

At the Joint Ministerial Council (JMC) in November, I confirmed the UK Government's expectation that Overseas Territories implement fully public registers of beneficial ownership. Fully public registers have already been introduced in Montserrat and Gibraltar, and commitments were made by the Falkland Islands and Saint Helena to introduce these by April 2025. Anguilla, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands and the Turks and Caicos Islands committed to implement registers of beneficial ownership accessible to those with legitimate interest, which offer the maximum possible degree of access and transparency whilst containing the necessary safeguards to protect the right to privacy in line with respective constitutions, at the latest by June 2025.

The Bermudian consultation closed in January, but regulations have not yet been published. The Cayman regulations are a welcome step in the right direction. My officials are working directly with Cayman officials to ensure the regulations meet the JMC requirement of maximum possible degree of access and transparency and are in line with emerging international standards in the EU's 6th Anti-Money Laundering Directive.

A key focus of those discussions is to ensure that the conditions of access do not unduly deter effective proactive investigations and analysis.