Jonathan Ashworth – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Ashworth on 2016-05-03.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if the Government will use the Anti-Corruption Summit on 12 May 2016 to agree a timetable to force UK Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies to publish central, public registers of beneficial ownership.

Matthew Hancock

Our priority for the Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies has been for them to establish a central register of beneficial ownership information (or a similarly effective system) where they do not already have one, and for UK law enforcement and tax authorities to have full and automatic access to that information. As has previously been set out the registers will not be public, these measures will place our Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories well ahead of many other similar jurisdictions and represent a significant step forward in our ability to counter criminal activity.