Companies House Reform
What are the changes to my UK Company?
Companies House has new powers under the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act to query information provided to its register. These early changes are intended to reduce fraudulent information being accepted and published on the register. Some of these changes are listed below:
Stronger company name checks
Registered e-mail addresses must be supplied by all companies
A PO Box will no longer be accepted as a registered office.
Data matching technology will be used to identify and remove inaccurate data
Data can be shared with other government departments and law enforcement agencies
New identity verification requirements
There are already a number of price changes which have come into effect. Companies House have said these are to cover costs and help implement additional security measures to reduce the number of fraudulent Companies, as well as incorporations of companies with Directors impersonating other people.
Consultations on changes to the requirements of small and micro entity accounts to be submitted to Companies House. This will include
profit and loss being made available to the public record.
Directors report required for small entities, but not micro
Abridged accounts will no longer be permitted to be filed
An eligibility statement will be required for all companies claiming audit exemption
As yet the timeframe for this has not been confirmed but this will have a big impact on what smaller business need to disclose. There are also anticipated changes to company size thresholds from 1 October 2024.
The overall objective of the reforms is to improve the quality of the financial information available held on the Register, increased transparency and an increase in powers of the Registrar to increase the integrity and reduce economic crime.
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