Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps she plans to take to achieve transparency over the ultimate ownership of UK land held by overseas entities where the legal owner and the beneficial owner of land are different.

HM Land Registry holds publicly accessible records of the registered proprietors of land and buildings in England and Wales. If the registered proprietor is an overseas entity, information about the company and its beneficial owners is already publicly available on the Register of Overseas Entities, held by Companies House.

The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 will also require Overseas Entities acting as nominees to disclose their information to Companies House.

The Government intends to launch a consultation on how to make trust information held on the Register of Overseas Entities more transparent.