UK Law and Practice Contributed by: Colin Rodrigues and Harminder Sandhu, Hawkins Hatton Corporate Lawyers Ltd
national security and to combat economic crime, by ensuring the UK operates a more reliable companies’ register. The Act has brought in new powers for Com - panies House to improve its role in combating financial crime. New provisions in March 2024 include: • identity verification checks for directors and people of significant control, and challenging of filings where the information is suspicious, false or misleading; • a new requirement to obtain a registered email address and seek confirmation that the company has been formed for a lawful purpose; and • Companies House having wider information- sharing powers to volunteer data with law enforcement agencies, regulators and pub - lic authorities, as well as wider powers to remove information from its register. The Economic Crime and Corporate Transpar - ency Act 2023 (Financial Penalty) Regulations 2024 were placed before Parliament in February 2024. These are expected to be passed in May 2024 and will permit the Registrar of Companies to impose a penalty on a person if it is satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that they have com - mitted an offence pursuant to the Companies Act 2006. Real Estate Investment Trusts The real estate investment trust (REIT) regime has continued to evolve during 2023–2024 (see 5.3 REITs ). Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards The Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards (MEES) have applied to all new leases and renewals since April 2018. However, from April
2023, a landlord will be considered in breach if they let commercial property that has an EPC rating below E. It was expected that the mini - mum standard would be raised to a rating of B by 2030, but this may now occur at a slower rate than announced as consultations continue, with further legislation in 2024 to implement govern - ment policy. The Charities Act 2022 Some of the provisions in this Act relating to the disposal of land by charities came into force in June 2023, and on 7 March 2024 the final phase of provisions came into force. This will mean that requirements under Section 23 of the 2022 Act (amending Section 122 of the Charities Act 2011 relating to the statements to be included within a disposition instrument) must be implemented. There will be no need for a trustee to certify com - pliance with the Charites Act 2011. HM Land Registry There is a new form for prescribed clauses in a lease for a term longer than seven years, and, unless these are adopted, from November 2023 HM Land Registry will have rejected the lease. The new prescribed clauses also make it clear whether a party is an overseas entity. The Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023 This Act received Royal Assent on 26 October 2023, though a lot of the measures will not come into effect until further guidance and secondary legislation is passed. This Act, however, marks the beginning of wide-ranging planning reforms, with the expectation that these extensive reforms will make the planning system (which dates back to the Town and Country Planning Act 1947) a much easier, simpler, fairer and quicker system. The reforms clearly target meeting the demand for housing, with an inevitable impact on other sectors, such as the office, commercial and
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