Jonathan Ashworth, Labour’s Shadow Minister without Portfolio, commenting on the release of the list of countries that support the automatic exchange of beneficial ownership information, said:

“It is welcome to see such a wide spread of countries signing up to automatically exchange beneficial ownership information.

“However there are some countries notably absent from the list released today including some of our Overseas Territories. Even David Cameron’s ‘fantastically corrupt’ nations appear on the list, so it is very disappointing that not all British territories feature, particularly the British Virgin Islands, where over half the corporate entities exposed in the Panama Papers were registered.  

“Britain has a crucial role to play in fighting international corruption and making sure the world’s most corrupt don’t have places to hide. Theresa May must make the anti-corruption agenda a priority of her new regime and up the pressure on all British offshore territories to ensure they sign up to this automatic exchange of information and move towards a fully public register.”

Ends

Notes to editors:

•         HM Treasury release: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/beneficial-ownership-countries-that-have-pledged-to-exchange-information