Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with reference to the Land Registry's publication of offshore companies owning UK property, what assessment he has made of the potential effect on the public purse of making the beneficial owners of those companies public.

We stand by our commitment at the 2016 International Anti-Corruption Summit to create a register showing the beneficial owners of overseas companies which own or buy property in the UK or participate in central government contracts. We are carrying out a full impact assessment and will be publishing this in due course.