Legislators to examine relationship with overseas territories

LONDON (CMC):

The Commons Procedure Committee of the United Kingdom Parliament, will on Monday next week begin hearings into Britain’s overseas territories, including those in the Caribbean, lack of representation in the British Parliament and how it can be addressed.

“The reopened inquiry will examine options for overseas territories representation within the House of Commons Committee mechanism and in proceedings more generally,” the committee said in a statement.

“Witnesses may expect to be asked about changes to House procedures around legislative consent and transparency, how parliamentary select committees can work more collaboratively with overseas territories and about issues around direct representation,” it added.

The committee is expected to hear from representatives of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association UK and Peter Clegg, Dean of Social Sciences at the University of the West of England, as part of its inquiries into the territorial constitution.

Chairman of the Procedure Committee, Karen Bradley, said “the UK has 14 overseas territories, 10 of which are inhabited.

“The inhabited territories have their own executive and legislature systems, but no direct representation in the UK Parliament. Our inquiry will explore Parliament’s role in creating legislation that impacts the Overseas Territories, the options for reform and what effective representation could look like, she said.

Earlier this year, the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee of MPs launched an inquiry into the constitutional relationship between the UK and its overseas territories that includes Bermuda, the Turks and Caicos Islands, the Cayman islands, Anguilla and the British Virgin Islands.

Chairman of the committee, William Wragg, had said in April that there was no “one-size- fits-all” blueprint for Britain’s relationship with individual territories.

“Each territory has its own legislative processes and bespoke relationship with the UK, but with no official representation in UK Parliament, these constitutional arrangements are often misunderstood or overlooked.

“We recognise that there is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ framework for relations between the UK and the overseas territories, but by better understanding how existing arrangements operate in practice, we can better assess whether they are satisfactory and appropriate in the 21st century.”

The relationship between the UK and Bermuda has been the subject of renewed discussion in the wake of the British foreign secretary withholding Royal Assent on cannabis licensing laws on the basis that they would violate the UK’s international treaty obligations.