Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps her Department is taking to (a) prevent the setting up of fraudulent businesses and (b) improve the security and verification process when registering a business.

The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill, currently passing through Parliament, includes measures to reform the role of Companies House and improve transparency over UK companies, to strengthen our business environment and support our national security and combat economic crime, whilst delivering a more reliable companies register to underpin business activity.

The Bill will make it much easier to identify and clamp down on fraudulent companies, by giving Companies House new powers to check, challenge, and decline any dubious information on the Register, and by introducing identity verification for new and existing directors, beneficial owners and those who file information with Companies House.