Part 3 – Register of Overseas Entities Miscellaneous Section 177: Meaning of "registered overseas entity" in land registration legislation
This section amends the Land Registration Act 2002, the Land Registration etc (Scotland) Act 2012 and the Land Registration Act (Northern Ireland) 1970 to include further circumstances that lead to an overseas entity failing to remain a "registered overseas entity" and therefore subject to restrictions in dealing with its land. An overseas entity must be a "registered overseas entity" at the time of any relevant disposition in land. If it is not a "registered overseas entity" at the time of a relevant disposition in land, the third party dealing with the overseas entity will be unable to register its new interest with any of the UK’s land registries. Currently, an overseas entity is not to be considered a "registered overseas entity" if it has failed to comply with the duty to provide an annual update to the Registrar under section 7 of the Act.
	The new circumstances arise when an overseas entity has failed to respond to a notice from the Registrar that has been issued under section 1092A of the Companies Act 2006 (power of registrar to require information). If an overseas entity has not complied with the duty to provide the Registrar with information under a notice issued under section 1092A of the Companies Act 2006, it will not be regarded as a "registered overseas entity" until it has remedied the failure by providing the required information to the Registrar. The provision of the information does not retrospectively reinstate the overseas entity to being considered as a "registered overseas entity". Any relevant dispositions made in the period during which the overseas entity is non-compliant with its duties under section 1092A must not be accepted for registration by the land registries. This applies in the same way as it does to any period of non-compliance with the section 7 updating duty.
	Section 177(1) inserts this change into Schedule 4A of the Land Registration Act 2002 by substituting the current paragraph 8 for subsection (1).
	Section 177 (1A) renumbers subsection 5 (as inserted by the Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Act 2022) of section 21 of the Land Registration (Scotland) Act 2012 (LR(S)A 2012). This subsection becomes subsection (4A). The reason for this change is that two pieces of legislation being passed around the same time in 2022 each inserted a new subsection (5) into the LR(S)A 2012. This amendment corrects the inadvertent duplication.
	Section 177(2) inserts this change into the Land Registration (Scotland) Act 2012 (asp 5) by substituting the current Schedule 1A, paragraph 9, sub-paragraphs (2) and (3) for subsection (2).
	Section 177(3) inserts this change into the Land Registration Act (Northern Ireland) 1970 by substituting the current Schedule 8A (overseas entities) paragraph 7 for subsection (3).