Guernsey squares up to Westminster again

Monday 04 March 2019

The governments of Guernsey, Jersey and the Isle of Man have teamed up to fight proposals being discussed in Westminster today, to force the island to publish lists of who owns locally registered companies.

It's the second time in a year that the islands have had to fight the proposals - late last April, our representatives launched emergency meetings in London to try and convince UK MP's not to try and legislate for the islands.

They were successful that time, but now further amendments have been proposed to the UK’s Financial Services (Implementation of Legislation) Bill, which would force the islands to publish a company ownership register by the end of next year. UK MP's argue that the moves would help in their fight against money laundering and the financing of terrorism. 

But in a joint statement issued over the weekend, the three islands' governments said they had raised strong objections, describing the proposals as "inoperable."

"We are not represented in the UK Parliament, and it is a respected constitutional position that the UK does not legislate for the Crown Dependencies on domestic matters without our consent.

"The proposed amendments attempt to impose public registers of beneficial ownership for all Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories.  We also consider the legislation to be wholly unnecessary in the context of our robust existing approach to the retention and sharing of beneficial ownership information. All Crown Dependencies are committed to the highest standards of financial services regulation and transparency. Our jurisdictions are parties to Exchange of Notes for Beneficial Ownership information with the UK and are committed to the aim of exchanging adequate, accurate and current information on beneficial ownership to help combat tax evasion, money laundering and corruption."

Pictured: Dame Margaret Hodge MP (Labour) and Andrew Mitchell MP (Conservative), who are leading efforts to clamp down on money laundering through the British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies, which they describe as tax havens.

The proposals are in the name of MP's Andrew Mitchell and Margaret Hodge, along with 53 of their colleagues, including well known names and parliamentary big-hitters such as Ken Clarke, Sir Oliver Letwin, David Davis, Caroline Lucas, Ed Miliband, Margaret Becket, Harriet Harman and Hilary Benn.

Pictured: the relevant part of the amendment being proposed today.

Deputy Gavin St Pier will be in London for the meetings today, but he's already spoken out on the matter. He tweeted a series of opinions over the weekend shutting down any claims the UK will be successful.

Why would we want to lower our (verified and up to date data) standards to those of the UK (unverified and out of date.) As we have advised you, you be better legislating to regulate company service providers in the UK as we did in 2000 - we have offered our help and experience. https://t.co/8S2vOSmNJ0

— Gavin St Pier (@gavinstpier) March 2, 2019

Pictured: Deputy Gavin St Pier, Guernsey's President of Policy and Resources. 

Deputy St Pier, and Ministers from Jersey and the Isle of Man, and their officials, are in London today to lobby MP's.