On July 23, 2018, BEIS published the draft Registration of Overseas Entities bill, that will require overseas companies and other legal entities owning or desiring to own land in the UK to take steps to identify their ultimate principal beneficial owners and to register their particulars on a publicly accessible register maintained by Companies House.
The publication of the Bill follows a call for evidence published by BEIS on April 5, 2017 , to which it published a response on March 22, 2018.
BEIS has requested comments on the Bill by September 17, 2018. Subject to receiving royal assent and the making of the relevant secondary legislation, BEIS anticipates that the Register will be operational during the course of 2021.