The House of Commons Justice committee has announced an enquiry into the management of the relationship between the UK’s Ministry of Justice and the Crown Dependencies.
CALL FOR EVIDENCE
THE UNITED KINGDOM AND THE CROWN DEPENDENCIES
The Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey are self-governing dependencies of the UK. These 'Crown Dependencies' have their own directly-elected legislatures together with independent legal, administrative and fiscal systems. UK legislation only extends to them with the consent of the relevant legislatures. The Crown Dependencies are not part of the EU or EEA but they are in the Customs territory of the EU which means they can benefit from free movement provisions.
The UK Government is constitutionally responsible for the international representation of the Crown Dependencies. The Ministry of Justice is the UK Department with policy responsibility for managing the UK's relationship with the Crown Dependencies.*
Recent events, for example, the impact of the banking crisis on the Crown Dependencies, have brought the Ministry of Justice's role in relation to the Crown Dependencies into focus.** The Justice Committee has decided to conduct a brief inquiry into the role and performance of the Ministry of Justice in relation to the Crown Dependencies.
The inquiry will focus on:
i) How, in practice, the UK Government represents the Crown Dependencies internationally;
ii) The role of the Ministry of Justice in managing the United Kingdom's relationship with the Crown Dependencies including inter-departmental liaison and coordination; and,
iii) What, if any, changes are required, in terms of either policy or practice in order to improve the Ministry of Justice's management of the relationship between the United Kingdom and the Crown Dependencies?
These places usually peddle the most massive misinformation to such committees: I will be submitting evidence of what really happens within Jersey, in particular.
But the evidence of the subsidy given to the Isle of Man will also be submitted. I suspect the Committee will be wholly unaware of it, and these things need to be discussed.
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The Kaupthing IoM Depositors Action Group will also be submitting evidence.
My concern is that all these inquiries (Turner, Foot & now this one) are either little more than delaying tactics or the Ministry of Justice has totally lost its GPS and needs to know where it should be going. That said it would be just what is needed IF it provides HMG with the ammunition to DO SOMETHING POSITIVE and use the powers it has to legislate to bring the Crown dependencies into line with UK & Eurpoean policy.
Unfortunately the public will never know the true machinations going on behind the scenes without whistleblowers.
In the meantime let’s keep blogging away at it! 😛 âž¡ http://www.ksfiom-blog.blogspot.com/
No purpose will be served in this MoJ Committee asking Jersey, et al, whether they consider their systems and restraints, sufficiently robust to prevent laundering and tax evasion. I am not a prescient man, although I can almost hear Jack Straw telling us that the dependencies
strongly deny any wrongdoing or opaqueness. Well, in the words of Mandy Rice-Davies to the Old Bailey judge “they would say that woudn’t they”. These Jersey banks’ books need to be opened up and cleansed, once and for all. Sunlight is always the best disinfectant. If this Committee report turns out to be yey another inquiry whitewash, then tax evasion via the Channel Isles will continue unabated. As always, it is the serfs that ultimately suffer, not the Barons.
Jim
So true
Give us a route map, please MoJ
R