Report on Companies House progress released

The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 brought in reforms to Companies House procedures and powers with the first phase applying from 4th March 2024.

The aims of the reform are to make the information held in the company register more reliable and usable, protect individuals and businesses from fraud and to prevent the misuse of UK companies by international money laundering networks.

The Department for Business and Trade has published a progress report on the implementation and operation of the Act to date and will continue to do so every 12 months until 2030.

The report notes that between 4th March and 1st April 2024, Companies House had:

• Removed 4,000 inappropriate registered office addresses.
• Removed 2,100 officer addresses and 2,300 people with significant control addresses.
• Redacted 3,600 incorporation documents to remove personal data used without consent.
• Removed 1,250 documents from the register, including 800 false mortgage satisfaction findings that would previously have required a court order to remove.
• Contacted 3,800 companies that have PO Boxes as their registered office address to make them aware these were no longer legally compliant and asking for an alternative appropriate address. By 1st April 2024, the number of companies using a PO box had been reduced to 1,900.

Companies House have made further changes to the way companies are set up so that it’s much harder to make anonymous filings and discourage those who try to hide company ownership through nominees or opaque corporate structures.

You can see further updates on the impact of the changes being made as part of the Act in these posts:

Important Company Law Changes

Companies House Data Improvement

New Companies House powers are now live!

As always, if you have any questions about the implications of the Act on your business, please get in touch.