- 06 Jun 2024
- •
- 2 min read
Companies House’s new powers and requirements with effect from 4 March 2024
On 4 March 2024, Companies House acquired significant new powers and implemented important new filing requirements, with associated criminal offences and civil penalties, in efforts to ‘improve the quality and reliability of its data and tackle misuse of the companies register’.
On 4 March 2024, Companies House acquired significant new powers and implemented important new filing requirements, with associated criminal offences and civil penalties, in efforts to ‘improve the quality and reliability of its data and tackle misuse of the companies register’.
NEW REQUIREMENTS
1. Registered Office address
Companies must now have an ‘appropriate address’ as their registered office. According to Companies House this means an address where documents sent ‘should be expected to come to the attention of a person acting on behalf of the company’ and where ‘any documents sent to that address can be recorded by an acknowledgement of delivery’. This means that PO Box addresses may no longer be used. Furthermore, if an appropriate address is not provided, Companies House may begin the process of striking off the company.
Action required
Companies using a PO Box or an inappropriate address as their registered office must immediately change their registered address.
2. Confirmation Statements – New information
Confirmation statements now require two additional pieces for information:
- Statement of lawful purpose – companies must confirm that the company’s intended future activities are lawful; and
- Email address – companies must provide an email address, referred to as a ‘registered email address’, which Companies House will use to communicate with the company. This email address will not be publicly available.
Action required
When a company next files its confirmation statement it must ensure this information is given.
Going forward, a company must update its registered email address if the current one ceases to be appropriate, otherwise the company will be committing an offence.
NEW POWERS
1. Ensuring accurate and complete information
Companies House also acquired increased powers to ensure information on the register is accurate and complete, and it may now query information filed, request supporting evidence, reject information and remove incorrect information from the public record.
2. Company names
Companies House will be working harder to stop the use of misleading company names. In addition to earlier requirements where company names could not be similar to an existing name or contain sensitive words or expressions that suggested a connection with UK government bodies, now applications to register a name can be rejected, and existing companies could be forced to change their name, for example, if the name may be used to facilitate fraud.
3. Sharing data
Companies House can now share data with other government departments and law enforcement agencies.
If you would like to talk to our Corporate team, please call us on 0800 2800 421 or contact us using the form below.
