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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether anonymous foreign owners will be required to register their identities on the UK property register as well as the Register of Overseas Entities.

Created under the powers of the Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Act, the Register of Overseas Entities will require overseas companies owning or buying property in the UK to give information about those with more than 25% ownership or control of their company to Companies House.

The Register will require the name, date of birth and nationality of the beneficial owner to be submitted, as well as their usual residential address, a service address, details on the basis of on which grounds they are a beneficial owner, and if the person is part of the UK Sanctions List.

The Register will be publicly accessible online, allowing anyone scrutinising data held by the UK’s land registries to quickly seek relevant further information from the Register of Overseas Entities.