Published: 24 March 2023 11:27 am  Author: Oliver Stanley

Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Act 2022 – Companies House prepares for implementation

Companies House are starting to make plans for initial implementations of the Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Act 2022. 

Assuming that the Act gets Royal Assent, Companies House (“CH”) has begun planning what changes it will start implementing later this year.  The first changes expected are:

1. Each company will be required to provide a registered email address to CH as part of their core information.  This will be private (not available on the public register) and used for communications from CH.  The email address will need to be provided to CH as part of new incorporation applications, or as part of the next Confirmation Statement filings for existing companies.  CH will also be building a new process whereby a company can notify them of a change of registered email address (this is likely to be a new filing).
2. Each company will be required to confirm that their registered address is an “appropriate address”.  This declaration will be added as part of any filing which creates or changes a company’s registered office.
3. Each company will be required to confirm that they are carrying out a “lawful purpose” in their business activities.  This declaration will need to provided as part of new incorporation applications and confirmation statements going forward.
4. PO Box addresses will not be permitted as registered addresses.  CH will validate any filing that create or changes a registered office address and reject PO Box addresses.

These proposed changes are still in the early stages and dependent on Royal Assent. Their will be more substantial changes coming (including the proposed ID verification checks) in due course.

As ever, Kudocs is keeping a close eye on this and will be ready to adapt to any changes required to ensure that our customers are always compliant (and find it easy to be compliant!).

If you have any questions about this or want to discuss these changes, please get in touch – info@kudocs.co.uk.