The Register of Overseas Entities (Penalties and Northern Ireland Dispositions) Regulations 2023

The Register of Overseas Entities (Penalties and Northern Ireland Dispositions) Regulations 2023 were published on legislation.gov.uk, the official UK government web site for publicizing legal documents. The regulations supplement the Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Act 2022 in that they
– grant powers to the Registrar to impose, modify, or revoke financial penalties in relation to legal and natural persons not complying with their beneficial ownership registration requirements;
– stipulate provisions as to the amount of penalties that may be imposed;
– include corresponding penalty appeal provisions (filing deadline, reasons for an appeal, the appeal process to be followed); and
– include enforcement provisions so as to ensure that the penalties can be recovered.
Additionally, the regulations modify the Land Registration Act (Northern Ireland) 1970 to permit persons or entities to apply with the Secretary of State for consent to the transfer and registration of property or land that would otherwise be prohibited (please see the background below for more information). In this context, the Secretary of State may also set out new regulation to
– specify the content of any such application;
– define the application process; and
– specify the documents that the Secretary may require to substantiate the application.
##### Background
The Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Act 2022 introduced the requirement for all overseas entities which own or intend to own property in UK, including trusts, to provide detailed information about their beneficial owners to the registrar of companies. That information will be publicly available unless stipulated otherwise (e.g. in the case of trusts).
The Act also provides that firms / entities non-compliant with this registration requirement cannot dispose their property (sale/transfer). If a third party buyer now purchases such property, not knowing that the firm / entity selling it is actually prohibited from doing so, the third party buyer can – under the Land Registration Act 2002 – apply to the Secretary of State for consent to the transfer and registration of the land or property in its name.