Andrew Griffiths , the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) has confirmed that the government will establish a public register of beneficial owners of non-UK entities that own or buy UK property, or which participate in UK Government procurement.
A draft Bill will be published this summer.
The aim of the proposed reigster is to achieve greater transparency around foreign entities that own or buy property in the UK or participate in UK Government procurement and follows a call for evidence on this topic which closed in May 2017.
The government ‘intends a significant piece of legislation that delivers a streamlined policy, consistent across the UK, where currently the Land Registries for England and Wales, for Scotland and for Northern Ireland have taken different approaches to land registration and registration of overseas entities.’
It intends that the register will be operational in 2021.
A response to to BEIS’s call for evidence will provide more detail on responses received and the proposed approach.
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