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Impact

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Find details about the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland's beneficial ownership transparency reforms

Records last updated: 16 June 2025

Contact person: Louise Russell-Prywata

Current ongoing work

Open Ownership is closely involved in providing evidence, advice, and data analysis to support implementation and improvement of beneficial ownership transparency in the United Kingdom (UK), and is a member of the UK Illicit Finance Working Group.

Committed to one or more

  • Live register
    Following the launch of one or more beneficial ownership registers, a country is labelled as Live register.

Implemented one or more

Data on the Open Ownership map is drawn from publicly-available sources and may not be comprehensive for all countries. For countries marked in grey we do not have information. If data is incorrect, or to submit new data, please fill in this form.

Implementation details

Trust Registration

Name
Trust Registration
Scope
Full-economy
Structured data publicly available
No
Published as BODS
No
Available via API
No

People with significant control (PSC) Register

Name
People with significant control (PSC) Register
Scope
Full-economy
Register launched
2016
Threshold used to determine beneficial ownership
25%
Structured data publicly available
Yes
Published as BODS
No
Available via API
Yes
Available on the OO register
Yes

Register of Overseas Entities (ROE)

Name
Register of Overseas Entities (ROE)
Scope
Sectoral: Land, Foreign corporate vehicles, Land and real estate
Register launched
2022
Threshold used to determine beneficial ownership
25%
Structured data publicly available
Yes
Published as BODS
No
Available via API
Yes

Commitment details

Show further detail
  • United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland has made a commitment to beneficial ownership transparency as part of the Beneficial Ownership Leadership Group. [31 August 2021] link to commitment
  • As an Extractives Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI) member, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland has committed to beneficial ownership transparency for the extractives sector. [25 February 2016]
  • United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland has included a commitment in an Open Government Partnership National Action Plan to beneficial ownership transparency [31 December 2021] link to commitment
  • The United Kingdom has committed to creating a beneficial ownership register of overseas entities which own UK property in the Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Act 2022 [15 March 2022] link to commitment
  • At the 2016 UK Anti-Corruption Summit, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland made a commitment to beneficial ownership disclosure. [12 May 2016] link to commitment
  • As a European Union member, the United Kingdom was obliged to create a central, public register of beneficial ownership as part of the EU’s fifth Anti-Money Laundering Directive. Following the judgement of the Court of Justice of the European Union on 22 November 2022, member states are no longer required to provide public access, and are instead required to, at a minimum, provide access to those that can demonstrate a legitimate interest. [19 April 2018] link to commitment
  • As a European Union member, the United Kingdom was obliged to create a central register of beneficial ownership as part of the EU’s fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive by 2017. [20 May 2015] link to commitment
  • At the 2023 Summit for Democracy, the United Kingdom committed to effective implementation of beneficial ownership transparency measures and the maintenance of a beneficial ownership registry or an alternative mechanism [29 March 2023] link to commitment

Relevant articles and publications