PARBO UPDATE IN UK PARLIAMENT

With uncertainty still surrounding the status of the controversial Public Access to Registers of Beneficial Ownership(PARBO) legislation, the British government’s recently appointed Minister for the Overseas Territories, Uma Kumaran, has sought to provide clarity on the issue.

She was responding on behalf of the new Foreign Secretary, Ed Miliband, to a series of questions on the matter raised earlier this month in the UK Parliament/.House of Commons.

A main sticking point over the PARBO law is the insistence by Cayman and several other OTs that it should be replaced by Legitimate Interest Access’(LIA) to gain information about certain details of the ownership of companies registered in their offshore financial centre jurisdictions. A fee to access that information is also included in the LIA as a requirement.

Although the questions were specifically about the situation in the Turks and Caicos Islands(TCI), the core issue of ‘Legitimate Interest Access’(LIA) also applies to Cayman and other territories which have been pressing for that approach.

According to Minister Kumaran: “Establishing wider access to beneficial ownership data including to those with a legitimate interest - is a step forward towards enabling greater scrutiny of illicit finance. The UK welcomed Turks and Caicos Islands’ (TCI) Legitimate Interest Access (LIA) Register of Beneficial Ownership when it launched in 2025. But we are clear that there is more work to be done.”

In responding to the questions from Labour Party MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy, Min. Kumaran went on to explain: “We are working with TCI and other Overseas Territories (OTs) to ensure those with LIA registers provide the maximum possible degree of access and transparency, whilst protecting the right to privacy in line with each OT’s respective constitutions. Fee rates are part of this discussion. The UK’s expectation remains for the OTs and Crown Dependencies to establish fully public registers of beneficial ownership.”

Further outlining the current UK Labour government’s stance on the matter, Min. Kumaran added: “The UK is committed to expanding economic cooperation with the OTs. Sustainable economic prosperity is important to the whole UK family. The FCDO co-convened an OT Trade and Investment Study Visit in March 2026, bringing together senior representatives from across the OTs - including from TCI - to strengthen awareness of UK capabilities, and give our support to commercial partnerships and economic development opportunities. The UK Government remains available to provide advice and technical support where requested.”

In recent years, both Conservative and Labour Party governments have been threatening to impose the PARBO law on non-conforming territories. The last deadline to implement the original version was this summer, but negotiations over the LIA alternative have been ongoing.

According to the new UK OTs Minister: “We regularly raise our expectations on publicly accessible and legitimate interest access registers of beneficial ownership with OTs and Crown Dependencies.”