Plans by a UK House of Commons committee to conduct an inquiry into Britain’s Overseas Territories is timely and has rightly been welcomed.

It has been about a decade since the influential Foreign Affairs Committee last conducted a similar inquiry and a good deal has changed in that time.

The greatest change has been the grant of British citizenship and passports to Overseas Territories citizens, but there have also been advances in constitutional development, stark evidence of the vulnerability of small islands to natural disasters and an increased emphasis on transparency and good governance.

The latter point was of course made clearly just a few weeks ago when then Foreign Office junior minister Lord Triesman reissued a 2003 paper giving guidance on good governance in the Overseas Territories.

Then too, there is a growing restiveness in some territories about the limits set upon local governments’ powers and the usual frictions that arise from time to time between governors and governments, as evidenced in Bermuda last month when Premier Dr. Ewart Brown threatened to suspend business with Governor Sir John Vereker.

Assuming that no territories do seek Independence in the near future, there is plenty of scope for an examination of relations between local governments, Governors and the Foreign Office and on the extent to which local governments can make their own way on external relations and the like.

With regard to Bermuda, there will also be scope for discussions on Bermuda’s constitutional relations. This could include debates on any further delegation of the Governor’s reserved powers, but perhaps more importantly, some decisions on how major constitutional changes, such as Bermuda’s changes from dual to single seat constituencies, can be decided and whether there is room for referendums on major issues, including Independence.

It is unlikely that the United Bermuda Party’s bid for a Royal Commission into an investigation of corruption at Bermuda Housing Corporation will be given support by the committee, because it probably falls outside its remit, but it will no doubt be considered within the committee’s examination of governance.

It is to be hoped that the committee will look at internal and external security quite carefully. Small islands are peculiarly vulnerable to crime and drugs, and this is an area where greater cooperation between the territories and with Britain will be useful.

Similarly, it is to be hoped that some recommendations can come on cooperation on disaster relief. Montserrat remains the most graphic example of how a natural disaster — in its case a volcano — can shatter a community — but hurricanes remain a growing threat to all Caribbean territories. Bermuda has been something of a trailblazer in providing relief, but it would be worth developing some kind of emergency response team that can go quickly to affected territories.

A less dramatic but equally important area concerns human rights and the applicability of international treaties to overseas territories. In particular, the territories remain outside the European Convention on Human Rights and are not subject to the legal precedents being set under its auspices, in spite of the grant of rights of residence in the European Union.

While there are good arguments in favour of the territories being included, this is likely to cause some opposition among social conservatives, and a solid examination and debate is needed on the question.

It is worth noting that the committee is accepting evidence from all interested parties. Now is the time to be heard in the halls of Westminster and Whitehall.