My Lords, I rise to speak to Amendment 69G in my name and those of the noble Baroness, Lady Kramer, and the noble Lords, Lord Collins and Lord Kirkhope, who regrets very much that he cannot be here. The amendment continues the debates that began in what is now the Criminal Finances Act 2017. It reflects the widespread and continuing concern about how the lack of transparency in the offshore financial centres of the British Overseas Territories—that is, Anguilla, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Montserrat and the Turks and Caicos—enables the corrupt and criminal to find a haven for their ill-gotten wealth.
The publication of the Panama papers in April 2016 revealed information about thousands of questionable financial transactions. Half of the companies disclosed by the Panama papers—around 140,000—were registered in the British Virgin Islands, which we have heard
mentioned a number of times today in relation to property transactions. Those revelations brought home to many the highly damaging effects of the lack of transparency in those overseas territories. During the proceedings of the Criminal Finances Bill, a similar amendment to this was debated, which would have required the Government to help the British Overseas Territories to produce publicly accessible registers of beneficial ownership by the end of 2018. Should any of the territories fail to produce such a register, the Government would require them to do so through an Order in Council no later than the end of 2019.
The amendment became victim to the wash-up before the general election, and an alternative government amendment became part of the Act. This requires the Government to,
“prepare a report about the arrangements in place between … (a) the government of the United Kingdom, and (b) the government of each relevant territory, for the sharing of beneficial ownership information … The report … must be prepared before 1 July 2019, and … must relate to the arrangements in place during the period of 18 months from 1 July 2017 to 31 December 2018 … The relevant Minister must … publish the report, and … lay a copy of it before Parliament”.
Considering the impending dissolution of Parliament and the lack of time, the government amendment was very welcome.
7 pm
The move towards establishing registers of beneficial ownership to be commenced by 1 July 2017 and accessible to British law enforcement was a step on the right path. However, it did not go far enough in moving towards greater transparency and, since then, the demand for public registers has continued and has been fanned by the publication of the Paradise papers, which once again revealed information about secret transactions—on this occasion concentrating on tax avoidance. That is the background to Amendment 69G, which is indeed a probing amendment aiming to establish what progress has been made and how the Government now see the importance of transparency in the light of recent developments on money laundering.
The Overseas Territories Joint Ministerial Council met last week. We are truly fortunate that the noble Lord, Lord Ahmad, is, among his many other responsibilities, the Minister for the Overseas Territories. Following the meeting of the Joint Ministerial Council, can the noble Lord when he replies—if he intends to reply on this occasion—tell the Committee exactly what progress has been made in the British Overseas Territories with preparing registers and in sharing information? Do all the British Overseas Territories have accessible registers covering all the companies in their jurisdiction? On how many occasions have British law enforcement agencies sought access to the registers and have these arrangements for access proved satisfactory? Can the Minister confirm that a progress report is due in January 2018 and also explain how the progress report will be compiled and how it will be published? In answering these questions, it is clear that the Minister will have to take into account the huge damage caused by the recent severe hurricanes on the British Virgin Islands, Anguilla and the Turks and Caicos.
Another of the noble Lord’s responsibilities is for human rights. This is not only a financial issue, it is fundamentally a human rights issue. If there is no transparency, it is too easy for those who siphon off from impoverished countries the revenue, say, from natural resources, such as oil or diamonds, that should be allocated to meet the needs of the people, to hide this money in shell companies in offshore jurisdictions. The consequences are that, for many millions of people—women, children and men—their right to health, their right to education and, in many cases, their right to life itself is jeopardised.
Transparency is not the only solution to preventing the laundering of stolen money, but transparency led to the UK’s Panama papers task force, which is pursuing 74 individuals and 26 companies and has made links to eight Serious Fraud Office investigations. Transparency has also led to the resignation of politicians—last year, the Prime Minister of Iceland and, this year, the Prime Minister of Pakistan. Former Prime Minister David Cameron has been quoted by a number of noble Lords and I will do the same. At the Anti-Corruption Summit 2016, he said with admirable simplicity:
“If you don’t know who owns what, you can’t stop people stealing from poor countries and hiding that stolen wealth in rich ones”.
I beg to move.