Companies House has announced that the current requirement for companies to maintain their own local registers of people with significant control (PSCs), directors, and secretaries will be abolished on 18 November 2025 and companies will be subject to augmented filing obligations at Companies House. Information from the 18th of November 2025 will need to be provided directly to Companies House.
What is changing?
Currently, every company must hold and maintain statutory registers of its PSCs, directors, directors’ residential addresses, and secretaries. Private companies may alternatively decide to use the central register to hold information about the company’s directors and company secretaries.
The duty to keep these registers will be removed on 18 November 2025. Companies will be required to file statutory information at Companies House. This will broadly correspond to the information currently required to be entered in the local registers, although with some minor changes such as details about a director’s business occupation which will no longer be required.
The obligation to maintain these registers will be replaced with a requirement to file specified information at Companies House. The Companies House record will become the verified source of information in respect of these registers.
With regards to PSCs, the regulations suggest that companies will be required to update Companies House within 14 days of having confirmation of any changes to PSC information. The new regime aims to reduce the time-lag that exists in the current system between companies updating their local PSC register and informing Companies House.
What about the register of members?
The option for companies to elect to keep information about its members on a central register, rather than on a local register, will also be removed. This means that all companies will be required to maintain their own register of members, or through a third party, these registers must be held at its registered office address or single alternative inspection location.
The register of members is vitally important because it is prima facie evidence that a person whose name is on the register is a member of the company, and holds the shares stated in the register as being held by them. A person whose name is not on the register may still be a member of the company but, if there’s a dispute, they would need to go to court to seek an order to rectify the register to include (or reinstate) their name on the register.
Third parties can still maintain non-statutory records
While the statutory requirement is gone, you may wish third parties to maintain these records for:
Due diligence:
Companies often provide their existing, internally maintained registers to third parties for due diligence purposes, as these offer a clear, organised picture of the company’s governance.
Internal housekeeping:
Maintaining these non-statutory registers can be a good practice for managing internal governance and information within a company.
Next steps
Review your company’s registers of directors, directors’ residential addresses, secretaries and PSCs and check that the information required to be set out in them is readily available and up to date
As a matter of good corporate governance, check your register of members is up-to-date too
If your register of members has been held centrally at Companies House, make arrangements for this register to be held internally within the company or with a third-party provider from 18 November. You’ll need to:
- Create a register of members
- Hold the register of members at the company’s registered office address or SAIL address
- Include a statement in the register of members that before this change, the information about the company’s members was held on the ‘central register’
- Make this register available for the public to view
While The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023, will remove the obligation for a company to maintain its own statutory registers of directors, directors’ residential addresses, secretaries and PSCs, there’s nothing to stop companies continuing to maintain these registers. Consider whether it would be useful from a corporate governance perspective to keep up these registers on an ongoing basis. In addition to the registers required by statute, many companies already maintain other registers of corporate information such as registers of share allotments, share transfers and debenture holders and these are often helpful for prospective buyers or investors in evidencing the company’s corporate history.
Contact Our Experts
