Since then business interests including the CBI, the Institute of Directors and the Law Society have mounted a rearguard action to kill off the plan, saying unilateral action would leave British firms at a competitive disadvantage.

The CBI had told the business department it would prefer a multilateral but private register. It had also warned of "foreseeable concerns around the security and use of publicly available data, such as the 'profiling' of individuals based on their company holdings or the targeting of individuals with holdings in certain companies."

The Law Society had warned the "proposals may damage the attractiveness and competitiveness of the UK as a jurisdiction for the incorporation of companies. We believe that the effect of introducing the proposals will be to drive investors to form companies outside the UK and that the UK could therefore lose a considerable amount of business as a result.''

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/apr/21/vince-cable-public-register-company-ownership



Brilliant, the very companies who will happily hoover up and sell the public's personal data are now worried about their own.

And there's the old 'We'll take our football away' from, strangely, the Law Society. I wonder what their angle is. I mean, my Coke, I thought we had a truly competitive market where tax avoidance etc was to be cracked down upon...