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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent assessment his Department has made of the ability of Companies House to verify beneficial ownership data submitted to the register.

Companies House carries out a number of checks on all information received; ensuring it is valid, complete, correctly formatted and in compliance with company filing requirements. The obligation to ensure the information is accurate lies with the company and its directors. A company commits an offence if it files false information.

In addition, following the Financial Action Task Force evaluation, which will report back in due course, the Government will actively consider areas where the Anti Money Laundering/Counter Terrorism Finance framework can be improved. The Government will look in particular at controls over who registers companies in the UK, what information they have to provide, and how assurance is provided over that information