Register of Overseas Entities (Protection and Trusts) and Limited Liability Partnerships (Application of Company Law) (Amendment) Regulations 2026

Debate between Lord Fox and Lord Ashcombe

Tuesday 30th June 2026 Grand Committee

[Lord Ashcombe (Con)]

My Lords, I welcome the opportunity to speak to these regulations, which form part of the ongoing work to strengthen and refine the register of overseas entities, a register introduced by the Conservative Government to bring greater transparency to overseas ownership of UK land and to protect our economy from illicit finance. The instrument before us makes targeted and practical improvements to ensure that the register continues to operate effectively, balancing transparency with the proper protection of personal and sensitive information. These are measured and proportionate adjustments that respond to operational experience and ensure that the system remains robust, fair and fit for purpose.

As the Minister has outlined, the purpose of the register is to increase transparency around the beneficial ownership of overseas entities that hold land in the United Kingdom and to strengthen the UK’s defence against illicit finance. The framework for the register, including the treatment of trust information, was designed to balance two important principles: first, transparency, to ensure that overseas ownership structures cannot be used to conceal criminal activity; and secondly, privacy and proportionality, particularly in relation to sensitive trust data and information involving minors.

Since the register came into force, operational experience has highlighted several areas where the legislation could be improved to ensure that the system functions as intended. These include: first, the requirement to provide the name of the trust when applying for trust information, which in some cases risked revealing personal or sensitive details; secondly, the rules governing access to trust information where minors are involved, which were found to be overly restrictive; and thirdly, the administrative burden placed on individuals seeking to remove their home address from the public register, even where Companies House could verify the information internally.

The regulations before the Grand Committee today are intended to address these practical issues. They refine the balance between transparency and privacy; ensure that sensitive information, particularly relating to children, is handled appropriately; and streamline processes where the register already has the means to verify information. Taken together, these amendments represent a continuation of the work begun when the register was created, strengthening its operation, improving its accuracy and ensuring that it remains a robust tool within the UK’s wider economic crime framework.

[Lord Fox (LD)]

My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow the noble Lord, Lord Ashcombe, for the first time, I think. I welcome him to the wonderful world of economic crime. We are history-makers today, in that this is the first 11 am Tuesday session. It is a welcome change to the way in which we do business, making constructive use of the time we have. I look forward to lots of 11 am sessions going forward.

As both noble Lords have said, tackling economic crime and financial security are vital for the economy. I was one of the people who worked on the two economic crime Bills brought forward by the previous Administration. There was a collective effort by all parties in the House to try to deal with some of the most pernicious elements of the economic crime going on in our country.

As the Minister said, the register of overseas entities is an important step in improving beneficial ownership transparency, and we welcome any measures that make it work better in practice. As both speakers said, there are three elements to this statutory instrument. The first is to make trust information held on the register of overseas entities easier to access by removing the requirement to provide a trust name, as the Minister said, and allowing disclosure of non-minor information, even when a trust includes children. There was quite a lot of debate on this during the passage of the Bill, and this measure gets the balance right, I think, based on my rather sketchy memory of that debate.

The second element seeks to simplify the process, removing residential addresses from the public register. This is an important service for people who feel threatened or have an element of public life, but it will be important that Companies House applies the evidence properly and does not allow people to remove themselves from the register for non-real or suspicious reasons. At some point it would be useful to get a written response explaining what processes would be required to ensure that this streamlined process is not used by criminals or people seeking to hide their identity.

The third element is the temporary removal of the recently introduced LLP address-reporting requirement. The Minister said that it was prematurely introduced and that Companies House systems need to be upgraded in order to process this information. This causes some concern. The temporary removal of the LLP address-reporting requirement is worrying. The stated reason is that the systems are not yet ready, but it raises a broader question in my mind, which we referred to a lot during debates on the legislation, about the pace and resourcing of the change process going on in Companies House.

Identity verification for company directors became a legal requirement only in November 2025, and Lib Dem colleagues had previously raised concerns about the readiness and security of the One Login platform underpinning these checks. The Government have to set out a clear timetable, which I hope will binding, about when these LLP reporting requirements will be reinstated, and ensure that Companies House receives the investment and support it needs to deliver the reforms that Parliament has already passed.

During the various discussions on the two economic crime Bills, we had updates from Companies House on the transformation it would need to undergo to be able to take on the new responsibilities that the Bills, now Acts, were placing on its shoulders. It was clear that the organisation had a huge cultural change requirement. Of course, some increased resources were made available, but it is a bit concerning that this cultural change might have paused or stalled. Perhaps it is time for interested parties to have an update from Companies House, either in person or virtually, on both its general upgrading of capabilities and the progress of the One Login process.

More broadly, the register of overseas entities is only as effective as its enforcement. We Lib Dems have long called for properly funded enforcement agencies to hold financial criminals accountable—they have huge resources at their disposal—and for the UK to work hard to close further economic crime loopholes that allow corrupt money to flow through British property and company structures. We also reiterate our call—we would never miss the opportunity to do so—for British Overseas Territories to meet the same transparency standards as the UK mainland.