The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023

These changes which are in effect from 4th March 2024 have been enacted to enhance the role of the Registrar of Companies and Companies House as a proactive regulator building on the changes introduced under the Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Act 2022.

 

The principal changes include:

  • Registered office – all companies must now have an “appropriate address” at all times. This means that companies will no longer be able to use a PO box as their registered address and the address must be one where an acknowledgement of receipt of delivery can be obtained

 

  • Email address – companies will need to provide a registered email address which will need to be monitored. This will be used for communications with Companies House and will not be publicly available

 

  • Lawful purpose – upon incorporation the subscribers of the company will need to confirm that they are forming for a lawful purpose and subsequently when filing the company’s annual confirmation statement there will need to be a statement that the company’s future activities are lawful

 

  • Company names – there are expanded restrictions on company names, including potential restrictions on names which could be used to facilitate dishonesty or deception

 

  • Annotations – Companies House will be able to annotate the Register where information appears misleading or incorrect

 

  • Companies House –may use data matching software to identify and remove inaccurate information from the Register

 

  • Powers of the Registrar – Companies House will have additional powers to scrutinise and reject company information which appears incorrect or inconsistent with existing filings

 

  • Data – the Registrar will have the power to share data with other governmental departments and law enforcement agencies.

 

UK companies will need to become aware of these important changes and ensure that they comply with the provisions since in some cases failure to do so could lead to criminal liability for the company and its officers.

Get in touch with Wellers Law Group to assist you with any changes which need to be made in terms of proper compliance.

 

This article was written by Howard Ricklow, our head of Company and Commercial law. To connect with Howard and to enquire about his services, please email howard.ricklow@wellerslawgroup.com or call him on  020 7481 6396.