By Caroline Davies From The Guardian UK

Call comes as it emerges that Britain has given £400m in aid to 18 countries regarded as tax havens, including Panama

The UK crime agency is demanding quicker access to the corporate records of secretive offshore companies in Britain’s overseas territories including the British Virgin Islands, Bermuda and the Cayman Islands.

Talks between the National Crime Agency, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) and tax havens are continuing alongside the fallout from the Panama Papers. But no final agreement with the overseas territories has been reached.

Andy Lewis, head of the NCA’s bribery, corruption and sanctions unit, travelled to the Cayman Islands and the BVI in February, the agency said.

The British government’s ultimate aim is to establish a public register of companies, but the first priority is urgent access to records so police and tax authorities can investigate potential criminal activity.

In December the leaders of the overseas territories agreed to discuss how to implement a system to allow for a “timely, safe and secure information exchange process” for the purposes of law enforcement.

Though it was agreed that this was a priority, no system has been finalised. It is hoped that an agreement can be reached shortly, and discussions are said to have been productive.

An FCO spokesperson said: “The government believes a public central register should eventually be the internationally agreed standard around the world. Our first priority is to ensure access for law enforcement agencies and tax authorities to create greater transparency to reduce corruption and intercept terrorist payments. This can be achieved more quickly.”

Bob Richards, the deputy premier of Bermuda, said British police officers were frustrated that they had been waiting for days, weeks or even months to get information, the Sunday Times reported(£). He said the NCA wanted urgent requests to be met within an hour.

An NCA spokesman said: “The government has been clear that access to information on the true ownership of companies is essential to tackling financial crime including tax evasion and money laundering.

“The NCA is supporting government work to improve law enforcement access to company ownership information in the UK’s overseas territories, such as the British Virgin Islands, Bermuda and the Cayman Islands.”

David Cameron wrote to the overseas territories in April 2014 urging them to allow public access to a central register of companies, but his request was rejected. Anthony Travers, chairman of the Cayman Islands stock exchange, who opposes a public register, said: “It would mean everybody could see exactly who owns everything. We think that is a terrible idea. There is a legitimate right to privacy.”

Robert Palmer, an expert at the anti-corruption NGO Global Witness, said Cameron must push the oversees territories into adopting fully public registers or risk damage to his credibility.

“The UK, from June this year, is creating a public register of the ultimate owners of companies and Cameron has been trying to get the overseas territories and other countries to match that position,” he said.

“The agreement that was reached at the [overseas territories] ministerial council was that it would create central registers with law enforcement access. Since then we haven’t had a specific time limit.”

There was a danger of the measures being watered down, he said, with the registers now being referred to as “central registers” rather than “public registers”.

“We think the overseas territories should match what the UK is doing and have fully public registers, because keeping this information in secret is what has led to all the scandals we are seeing with the Panama Papers.

“David Cameron does deserve some credit for pushing this issue internationally and pushing it in the UK by creating this UK register. But now it is credibility time, whether he is really going to push through on his own beliefs in transparency and openness that he has championed, and make the UK overseas territories match what the UK is doing.”

It emerged on Sunday that Britain had given more than £400m in aid to 18 countries regarded as tax havens, including Panama, which received at least £6.3m over a five-year period, much of it for law enforcement and anti-corruption initiatives.

Panama, Samoa, the Seychelles and Anguilla, named among the 10 most popular tax havens in the Panama Papers, collectively received more than £31m from the UK’s foreign aid budget.

A further 14 countries, named by the EU last summer in a 30-strong “blacklist” of tax havens, received almost £380m in foreign aid, the Sunday Times reported(£), quoting from the accounts of the Department for International Development (DfID). These included Belize (£12.1m), the Maldives (£6.8m), St Kitts and Nevis (£10.1m) and Vanuatu (£2.5m).

The biggest recipient was Liberia, with just over £158m, while Montserrat was given almost £116m in UK aid from 2009 to 2013.

An FCO spokesperson said that in Panama “the government delivers programmes to tackle corruption, the drugs trade and promote free trade – support that is in the UK national interest”.

A DfID spokesperson said Liberia needed support as it was one of the poorest countries in the world and had been devastated by Ebola. Humanitarian aid to Vanuatu followed the devastation caused by cyclone Pam. Montserrat, whose development the UK is obliged under UN law to support as an overseas territory, was devastated by a volcanic eruption that rendered two-thirds of the island uninhabitable.

IMAGE: The financial district of Panama City. Panama received at least £6.3m in UK aid over five years, much of it for law enforcement. Photograph: Alamy

For more on this story go to: http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/apr/10/national-crime-agency-offshore-companies-access-records