British Overseas Territories
The British Overseas Territories (BOTs) are the 14 territories with a constitutional and historical link with the United Kingdom that, while not forming part of the United Kingdom itself, are part of its sovereign territory.[1][2][3] The permanently inhabited territories are delegated varying degrees of internal self-governance, with the United Kingdom retaining responsibility for defence, foreign relations and internal security, and ultimate responsibility for good governance.[4][5] All of the territories are inhabited by civilians, except three that are chiefly or only inhabited by military or scientific personnel. All fourteen have the British monarch as head of state.[6] These UK government responsibilities are assigned to various departments of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and are subject to change.
"BOTs" redirects here. For other uses, see Bots (disambiguation).Population[edit]
Most of the territories retain permanent civilian populations, with the exceptions of the British Antarctic Territory, the South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (which host only officials and research station staff) and the British Indian Ocean Territory (used as a military base). Permanent residency for the approximately 7,000 civilians living in the Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia is limited to citizens of the Republic of Cyprus.
Collectively, the territories encompass a population of about 250,000 people[7] and a land area of about 480,000 sq nmi (1,600,000 km2).[8] The vast majority of this land area constitutes the almost uninhabited British Antarctic Territory (the land area of all the territories excepting the Antarctic territory is only 18,015 km2 [6,956 sq mi]), while the two largest territories by population, the Cayman Islands and Bermuda, account for about half of the total BOT population. The Cayman Islands alone comprise 28% of the entire BOT population.[9] At the other end of the scale, three territories have no civilian inhabitants – the Antarctic Territory (currently consisting of five research stations),[10] the British Indian Ocean Territory (whose inhabitants, the Chagossians were forcibly moved to Mauritius and the United Kingdom between 1968 and 1973),[11] and South Georgia (which actually did have a full-time population of two between 1992 and 2006).[12] Pitcairn Islands, settled by the survivors of the mutiny on the Bounty, is the smallest settled territory, with 49 inhabitants (all of whom live on the titular island),[13] while the smallest by land area is Gibraltar, which lies on the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula.[14] The United Kingdom participates in the Antarctic Treaty System[15] and, as part of a mutual agreement, the British Antarctic Territory is recognised by four of the six other sovereign nations making claims to Antarctic territory.
Government[edit]
Head of state[edit]
The head of state in the overseas territories is the British monarch, currently King Charles III. The monarch appoints a representative in each territory to exercise the executive power of the monarch. In territories with a permanent population, a governor is appointed by the monarch on the advice of the British government. Currently (2019) all but two governors are either career diplomats or have worked in other civil service departments. The remaining two governors are former members of the British armed forces. In territories without a permanent population, a commissioner is usually appointed to represent the monarch. Exceptionally, in the overseas territories of Saint Helena, Ascension, Tristan da Cunha and the Pitcairn Islands, an administrator is appointed to be the governor's representative. In the territory of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, there is an administrator in each of the two distant parts of the territory, namely Ascension Island and Tristan da Cunha. The administrator of the Pitcairn Islands resides on Pitcairn, with the governor based in New Zealand.
Following the Lords' decision in Ex parte Quark, 2005, it is held that the King in exercising his authority over British Overseas Territories does not act on the advice of the government of the UK, but in his role as king of each territory, with the exception of fulfilling the UK's international responsibilities for its territories. The reserve powers of the Crown for each territory are no longer considered to be exercisable on the advice of the UK government. To comply with the court's decision, the territorial governors now act on the advice of each territory's executive and the UK government can no longer disallow legislation passed by territorial legislatures.[51]
The role of the governor is to act as the de facto head of state, and they are usually responsible for appointing the head of government, and senior political positions in the territory. The governor is also responsible for liaising with the UK government, and carrying out any ceremonial duties. A commissioner has the same powers as a governor, but also acts as the head of government.[52]
United Nations list of non-self-governing territories[edit]
Of the eleven territories with a permanent population, all except the Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia in Cyprus continue to be listed by the UN Special Committee on Decolonization as non-self-governing territories since they were listed as dependent territories by the UK when it joined the UN in 1947. This means that the UK remains the official administrative power of these territories, and under Article 73 is therefore required "to develop self-government, to take due account of the political aspirations of the peoples, and to assist them in the progressive development of their free political institutions."[67]
Most of the languages other than English spoken in the territories contain a large degree of English, either as a root language, or in code-switching, e.g. Yanito. They include:
Forms of English:
Sports[edit]
Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands and the Cayman Islands are the only British Overseas Territories with recognised National Olympic Committees (NOCs); the British Olympic Association is recognised as the appropriate NOC for athletes from the other territories, and thus athletes who hold a British passport are eligible to represent Great Britain at the Olympic Games.[101]
Shara Proctor from Anguilla, Delano Williams from the Turks and Caicos Islands, Jenaya Wade-Fray from Bermuda[102] and Georgina Cassar from Gibraltar strove to represent Team GB at the London 2012 Olympics. Proctor, Wade-Fray and Cassar qualified for Team GB, with Williams missing the cut, however wishing to represent the UK in 2016.[103][104]
The Gibraltar national football team was accepted into UEFA in 2013 in time for the 2016 European Championships. It has been accepted by FIFA and went into the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifying, where they achieved 0 points.
Gibraltar has hosted and competed in the Island Games, most recently in 2023.
A Stoplight parrotfish in Princess Alexandra Land and Sea National Park, Providenciales, Turks and Caicos Islands
The British Overseas Territories have more biodiversity than the entire UK mainland.[105] There are at least 180 endemic plant species in the overseas territories as opposed to only 12 on the UK mainland. Responsibility for protection of biodiversity and meeting obligations under international environmental conventions is shared between the UK Government and the local governments of the territories.[106]
Two areas, Henderson Island in the Pitcairn Islands as well as the islands of Gough and Inaccessible of Tristan da Cunha are listed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites, and two other territories, the Turks and Caicos Islands and Saint Helena, are on the United Kingdom's tentative list for future UNESCO World Heritage Sites.[107][108] Gibraltar's Gorham's Cave Complex is also found on the UK's tentative UNESCO World Heritage Site list.[109]
The three regions of biodiversity hotspots situated in the British Overseas Territories are the Caribbean Islands, the Mediterranean Basin and the Oceania ecozone in the Pacific.[106]
The UK created the largest continuous marine protected areas in the world, the Chagos Marine Protected Area, and announced in 2015 funding to establish a new, larger, reserve around the Pitcairn Islands.[110][111][112]
In January 2016, the UK government announced the intention to create a marine protected area around Ascension Island. The protected area would be 234,291 square kilometres (90,460 sq mi), half of which would be closed to fishing.[113]