Crown Dependencies set to clash with Westminster today

Mon, 04 Mar 2019

Chief Minister Howard Quayle is in London this morning to hold discussions and meetings with MPs ahead of a vote which could see the Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey have to publish the names of corporate owners in a bid to end secret company ownership.

Currently, the Island is exempt from EU rules requiring countries to publish registers of the real owners of companies.

Tory MPs have pushed a parliamentary amendment, demanding that the crown dependencies introduce public registers by the end of next year.

If backed, it would mean revealing who owns assets in the islands.

A joint statement by Howard Quayle, Senator John Le Fondré and Deputy Gavin St Pier has called the move ‘wholly unnecessary’ because they already have a ‘robust existing approach to the retention and sharing of beneficial ownership information’.

Howard Quayle has sent a letter to MPs in Westminster in which he states the Island does not accept that it is legitimate for the UK Parliament to seek to impose upon the Isle of Man and its democratically elected representatives a policy choice made by the UK.