Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether, further to the factsheet published on 4 March 2022 which stated that the Register of Overseas Entities “will require anonymous foreign owners of UK property to reveal their real identities to ensure criminals cannot hide behind secretive chains of shell companies, setting a global standard for transparency”, and the implementation of the register on 1 August 2022, they will publish a table showing how many property owners have so far failed to reveal their real identities and the penalties levied upon them for failure to comply with the register’s requirements.

As of 7 September 2023, over 29,000 overseas entities have registered with Companies House. So far, over 1,200 warning notices have been issued to unregistered overseas entities. Warning notices are a pre-cursor to the imposition of a financial penalty. Financial penalties to the value of around £660,000 have so far been issued. The Government currently has no plans to publish a list of unregistered entities, or the penalties imposed on them. This would distract from the important compliance work currently being undertaken.