The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill (the Bill) received Royal Assent on 26 October 2023 and has now become law.
The Bill will allow Companies House to verify the identity of a wide range of individuals, including new and existing company directors, people with significant control (PSCs), members of LLPs and those who file on behalf of companies. They will also be able to remove fraudulent organisations from the company register and disclose information to criminal investigation agencies.
The Bill will also implement several changes for all UK registered companies including:
- Changes to the requirements for statutory registers
- Digital filing of fully tagged accounts (together with the removal of abridged and filleted accounts)
- An increase in Companies House filing fees from early 2024
- New rules for registered office addresses (which means all companies must have an appropriate address at all times), together with a registered email address
- Companies House will have greater powers to query and reject information (and potentially remove information on the register)
- A requirement for all companies to confirm on incorporation that they are forming a company for a lawful purpose (and future activities will need to be confirmed that they are lawful on each confirmation statement).
There is currently no set date for the changes to be implemented, however some of them are expected to be introduced in early 2024.
If you require further information, please get in touch with Katie Holden, Senior Manager, or a member of the Company Secretarial team.
