Overview

Companies House has released the intended timetable for reforms under the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act (2023). These timelines depend on Parliamentary progress and may be subject to change.

Key Reform Dates

From 27 January 2025  

Companies House should be able to:  

  • receive and assess applications from individuals seeking to have residential addresses suppressed from public disclosure where they’ve been used as a registered office address

From 25 February 2025

Companies House should be able to:

  • expedite the striking off of companies where the registrar has concluded the company has been formed for a false basis
  • carry out checks on Authorised Corporate Service Providers (ACSPs) to authorise them to carry out verification services – ACSPs will need to be registered in the UK and subject to the UK’s anti-money laundering regime

From 25 March 2025

Companies House should be able to:

  • allow individuals to voluntarily verify their identity

By summer 2025

Companies House should be able to:

  • allow access on request to certain trust information on the Register of Overseas Entities
  • receive and assess applications from individuals seeking to suppress their day of birth for documents registered before 10 March 2015, signature, business occupation, and residential address in most other instances

By autumn 2025

Companies House should be able to:

  • make identity verification a compulsory part of incorporation and new appointments for new directors and PSCs
  • begin the 12-month transition phase to require more than 7 million existing directors and PSCs to verify their identity – the identity verification will happen as part of the annual confirmation statement filing

By spring 2026

Companies House should be able to:

  • make identity verification of the presenters a compulsory part of filing any document
  • require third party agents filing on behalf of companies to be registered as an ACSP
  • reject documents delivered by disqualified directors as they will be prohibited from doing so, unless they are delivered by an ACSP for specified filings permitted by law

By the end of 2026

Companies House should be able to:

  • require all limited partnerships to submit more information, providing greater transparency for users of the register
  • complete the transition period for all individuals on the register requiring identity verification, and start compliance activity against those who have failed to verify their identity
  • facilitate greater cross-checking of information and data between Companies House and other public and private sector bodies

Following accounts reform

Companies House should be able to:

  • mandate software-only filing for all accounts – package accounts will be able to use the new zip package functionality
  • remove the option for small companies and micro-businesses to file abridged accounts
  • require all companies to file profit and loss accounts, helping to improve the financial information on the register – and require small companies to also file their directors’ report
  • require a company claiming an audit exemption to provide an enhanced statement from their directors on the balance sheet, specifying the exemption being claimed and confirming the company is eligible for it
  • limit the number of times that a company can shorten its accounting reference period

Following the implementation of restrictions on corporate directors

Any corporate directors of companies will be restricted so that any corporate director of a company must have an all-natural person board.

All the directors of the corporate director will be required to verify their identity in order for the corporate director to be registered.

Only UK corporate entities with legal personality will be capable of acting as a corporate director. We will prohibit the use of overseas companies from acting as corporate directors in the UK.

Get in touch with our experts

We will keep you updated should anything change and/or more dates released and will be updating as to how Menzies intends to proceed with the application as ACSP, and the verification of directors, PSC and LLP members.

If you have any queries, please do get in touch via the contact form below, or get in touch with our Company Secretarial Team:

Contact Our Experts

Company Secretarial Director

Anna-Lisa Brandini

Get in touch

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