NHS access, same-sex marriage and anti-money laundering laws are among the issues putting relations between the UK and its overseas territories (OTs) “under strain”, MPs say.
Westminster must act now to “strengthen the bonds” with Bermuda, Gibraltar, Turks and Caicos and more, a cross-party committee has said in a new report published today.
This includes resolving an “anomaly” in the British Nationality Act which stops fathers with OT citizenship from passing that on to children born outside the OTs between 1948 and 2006 if they were not married to the child’s mother at the time of birth.
According to the Foreign Affairs Committee – which includes Scottish MPs Stephen Gethins and Ian Murray – the Government must “urgently address” concerns held by people in OTs about equal rights, health services and new financial rules brought in last year to stop criminals and repressive regimes using UK-linked systems to fund their activities.
That move followed the Panama Papers and Paradise Papers scandals.
Referencing the Tory government’s post-Brexit trade strategy, committee chair Tom Tugendhat said: “For the overseas territories, global Britain is a living reality. Each OT is unique but all of them take great pride in their British identities and their strong bonds with the UK.
“The UK and the OTs are family, but that relationship must be underpinned by shared duties to each other and values.”
Calling for same-sex marriage to be legalised across all OTs and NHS access in the UK guaranteed to citizens, he went on: “Now is the time to tackle tensions and reset the relationship.
“We are calling for government to step back and take a considered view of how we engage with each other.”
The comments follow the first major enquiry into the UK’s relationship with OTs since 2008.
The process, the committee said, generated “significant interest” from communities and leaders in the British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands and more.
Its recommendations include setting out a “clear and detailed” timetable for the publication of registers of beneficial ownership in each OT to improve transparency.
The committee says the lack of available information on OT-registered companies has “foreign policy and national security implications”.
However, it states that some OTs “see it solely as a financial services matter”.
It is understood that it could take until 2023 to publish some registers, something the committee says is “simply not acceptable”.
The report states: “Those who seek to undermine our security and that of our allies must not be able to use the OTs to launder their funds.
“We cannot wait until public registers are a global norm and we cannot let considerations of competitiveness prevent us from taking action now.
“The lowest common denominator is not enough.
“While law enforcement agencies in the UK appear to have made relatively little use of their powers to request company information from the OTs, it is vital that this information can be accessed by the public, both in the UK and in countries where public money has been stolen by kleptocrats whose actions harm the UK and its allies.”
On same-sex marriage, it says the UK Government must be prepared to intervene through legislation if OTs fail to bring this into law.
Similar action was taken in 2001, when Westminster decriminalised homosexuality in those OTs which had refused to do so.
Meanwhile, the Government is asked to consider removing quotas on the number of people in OTs who can access the NHS in the UK “when their own health systems cannot provide the care and treatment they need”.
The inquiry heard that no more than four patients in Anguilla can receive NHS treatment in the UK each year under a limit established in 1985.
Since then, the island’s population has increased by 125% to 15,000.
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