Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will make it his policy to require UK Overseas Territories to create and publish registers showing the beneficial owners of companies registered in those territories.

Our priority for the Overseas Territories has been for them to hold accurate and current beneficial ownership information on island in central registers or the equivalent, where they do not already do so, and to allow for UK law enforcement to access that information. The agreements signed this week achieve this and represent a significant step forward in our ability to counter criminal activity and should be welcomed.

As the Prime Minister, the Member for Witney (Mr Cameron) said in the House on 11 April, only about three countries in the world, including Britain, are implementing open accessible central registers of company beneficial ownership information. The actions taken by the Overseas Territories put them well ahead of many of our international partners.