Feedback requested on United Kingdom’s relationship with its Overseas Territories
The United Kingdom (“UK”) Parliament’s Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee (“the Committee”) recently issued a call for evidence in connection with the constitutional arrangements of the UK’s Overseas Territories, including the Cayman Islands.1 In fulfilment of its constitutional mandate, the Constitutional Commission now seeks to provide a contextual explanation for this request, along with links to additional resources to assist persons who are interested in making submissions.
Background
The Committee’s call for evidence is premised on gaining a better understanding of whether the relationships between the UK and its Overseas Territories are fit for purpose. Noting that each of the UK’s Overseas Territories are unique, the Committee’s Chair, William Wragg MP, has advised that: “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.”
This Committee has also acknowledged that this call for evidence is timely in light of the passage of the Sanctions and Money Laundering Act 2018, where the unusual step was taken by the UK Parliament to extend this Act to cover Overseas Territories as well as the UK. In the Cayman Islands, this precipitated constitutional discussions with the UK, which ultimately resulted in the Cayman Islands Constitution (Amendment) Order 20202 and some realignment of the way in which the UK Parliament and Government interacts with the Cayman Islands.3
This initiative now presents a further opportunity to analyse and consider this relationship, which as the Committee’s Chair, William Wragg MP, has also observed, is important because “… with no official representation in UK Parliament, these constitutional arrangements are often misunderstood or overlooked.”
Scope of the Call for Evidence
The Committee is seeking evidence on how the UK Parliament and the UK Civil Service engages with the Overseas Territories; how the interests of the UK Overseas Territories are represented in the UK Parliament; and how the rights of British overseas citizens are protected.
Submissions addressing any or all of the following questions are welcomed:
Are the UK’s current constitutional arrangements as regards the overseas territories satisfactory
1 United Kingdom Parliament, The Status of the UK’s Overseas Territories in the 21st Century, 20 April 2023 (retrieved on 29 May 2023), https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/327/public-administration-and-constitutional-affairs- committee/news/194822/the-status-of-the-uks-overseas-territories-in-the-21st-century/.
2 https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2020/1283/made.
3 See the Constitutional Commission’s Explanatory Note (17 February 2020) at:
