The UK is not going to impose its will on the Isle of Man over beneficial registration.

Two amendments, one by Dame Margaret Hodge, the Labour MP for Barking and the other by fellow Labour MP, for Bishop Auckland, Helen Goodman, threatened to force legislation on the Isle of Man for open registers identifying who really own companies.

However, the House of Commons stepped back from forcing the Isle of Man and Channel Islands (Crown Dependencies) to act and the proposed ‘Goodman amendment’ was not put forward.

Although, Westminster is going to force the overseas territories to open their registers after Dame Margaret Hodge’s amendment was passed with no opposition.

It means places like the Cayman Islands and British Virgin Islands will be required to introduce a register revealing the beneficial owners of assets held in the jurisdiction.

The Isle of Man’s register is opened when law agencies ask for it. But it is not open to the public as a matter of course.

The issue of the UK forcing law on the Isle of Man was consitutionally potentially very serious.

Although the Isle of Man boasts about Tynwald being the oldest parliament in the world and the fact that we pass our own laws, the island is not a sovereign nation.

Westminster can legislate for the Isle of Man over Tynwald’s head. The situation is the same for the Channel Islands.

The UK has threatened to impose such measures on the island before over continued use of the birch and criminalisation of homosexuality.

That was one reason that Tynwald decided to act on those issues.

An argument used then was that Tynwald should change the law itself rather than have changes imposed by the UK.

The Manx government did not want the UK to get a taste for legislating for the Isle of Man.

The last time Westminster imposed a law on the Isle of Man was in 1967. The Marine Offences Act was extended to the Isle of Man to silence pirate radio station Radio Caroline, which broadcast from Ramsey Bay.

Tynwald opposed Westminster but lost.