UK Speaker agrees to host security conference for Cayman Islands
9 November 2021
The Speaker of the Parliament of the Cayman Islands has called on the Speaker of the House of Commons to convene a mini-conference on security.
Hon McKeeva Bush, OBE, JP. told Sir Lindsay Hoyle his nation of islands in the western Caribbean Sea needed his expertise on safety measures.
Speaker Bush said he had been concerned about a rise in public order issues around key buildings – claiming that issues normally associated with metropolitan cities were now affecting the Cayman Islands.
Sir Lindsay, who chaired the Consultative Panel on Parliamentary Security at the UK Parliament for more than five years, said a big part of his Speakership aimed ‘to build better links and strengthen friendships between the UK and the British Overseas Territories’.
"I also want to be useful to you and anything I can do to help, I will," he added.
Sir Lindsay used the opportunity to congratulate Speaker Bush on the Cayman Islands’ recent decision to change its Legislative Assembly into a Parliament.
Having spoken at the COP26 summit in Glasgow the day before, the UK Speaker also stressed concern about the impact rising sea levels could have on the three Cayman Islands of Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac, and Little Cayman.
Sir Lindsay hosted the meeting as part of his Speaker-led diplomacy to establish enduring ties between countries and parliamentarians.
Speaker Bush later joined UK MPs, representatives from the British Overseas Territories and the Commonwealth to plant remembrance stakes in a new Constituency Garden of Remembrance initiated by Mr Speaker.