Companies House Changes – April 2025

Last year, we explained changes that were due to be introduced as a consequence of the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 (ECCTA) and scheduled to take effect from 4th March 2024. As a reminder, last year’s changes are summarised here. Companies House changes from 4 March 2024 – RPG Chartered Accountants

Companies House have announced that the next tranche of changes is underway from April 2025 and includes:

1. Identity Verification
2. Changes to Company Registers
3. Protecting your personal information

Further details about each of these elements is provided below.

The precise timing and process are yet to be confirmed but Identity Verification, for example, is available on a voluntary basis from 8^th April 2025 with a 12-month transition period to full compliance commencing Autumn 2025.

Over he coming months, you will need to take action.  RPG have a specialist Company Secretarial team with market leading compliance software.  We will be able to work with you to ensure that you are, and remain, fully compliant with the increasing demands from Companies House. You can see more details about our Company Secretarial Service here Company secretarial | RPG Chartered Accountants | Manchester   Alternatively, you may prefer to manage your Companies House obligations yourself but please be aware that, as ever, Companies House will apply penalties for non-compliance.

1. Identity Verification

In an attempt to deter those wishing to use companies for illegal purposes, a new Identity Verification (ID Verification) process is being introduced. Anyone setting up, running, owning or controlling a company in the UK will need to verify their identity to prove they are who they claim to be.

The introduction of this new requirement will affect:

• new directors and People with Significant Control (PSCs)
• ALL existing directors and PSCs
• anyone filing on behalf of a company

Companies House have advised that the ID verification requirement will be effective from Autumn 2025 and that individuals are able to voluntarily verify their identity from 8^th April 2025.   There will be a 12-month transition period for directors and PSCs to comply, with the timing driven by the scheduling of the company’s Confirmation Statement.  All relevant people should be compliant with their ID Verification by Autumn 2026.

In anticipation of these requirements taking effect from Autumn 2025, we will check the details of ALL individual shareholders when setting up new companies with immediate effect.

Companies that are currently exempt from providing People with Significant Control (PSC) information will need to provide more details about the exemption, for example where their shares are traded and on which regulated market.

There will also be restrictions on the use of corporate directors. Only UK corporate entities with ‘legal personality’ can be appointed as corporate directors. The directors of these corporate directors must be natural persons and must verify their identity.

As Authorised Corporate Service Providers, RPG are registered by Companies House to carry out ID Verification checks on behalf of our clients, alternatively you will have the option of carrying out this action by yourself by using your GOV.UK One Login .

2. Changes to Company Registers

There has been a longstanding requirement, dictated both by Companies House and Company Law, for companies to maintain statutory registers at their premises including:

• Register of Directors and their residential addresses
• Register of Secretaries
• Register of People with Significant Control.

The ECCTA dictates that in future, the information for the registers listed above will be held by Companies House and will need to be kept up to date with changes still communicated within 14 days.  It does, however,  eliminate the requirement for companies to hold these statutory registers at their premises.

Companies will still be required to maintain a Register of Members and Debenture Holders at their registered office or inspection premises or alternative premises.  This register will need to detail the number of shares (or debentures) held, the addresses of members and other personal details as well as any share transfers. There will also be a requirement to retain historic information (such as old residential addresses) about a company’s members for up to 10 years.

In the past it has been possible to hold this information by opting into the Public Register held by Companies House, which was completely separate to the process for Confirmation Statements. This facility is now being withdrawn by Companies House due to minimal use. If you have previously held your data on the Companies House public register, it is advisable to take a copy of it immediately as you soon may not be able to access it.

There also remains an obligation for companies to maintain other statutory records including instruments of transfers, shareholders’ agreements, directors’ service agreements, statutory accounts along with the company’s certificate of incorporation, board minutes, shareholder resolutions and articles of association.  The ECCTA requires records of decisions taken at a board meeting to be retained for at least 10 years from the date of the meeting.

The maintenance of statutory records can be seen as quite burdensome. The maintenance of these records can be carried out by the individual company, alternatively maintenance can be provided as part of the RPG Company Secretarial Service.

3. Protecting your personal information

One of the objectives of the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act is to prevent the abuse of personal information held on the Companies House Register.

Individuals are now able to suppress the registered office address in historical documents where it is their home address.

From summer 2025, individuals will also be able to apply to suppress the following information from historical documents:

• residential addresses in most instances when shown elsewhere on the register
• day of birth for documents registered before 10 October 2015 (only the month and year of birth have been publicly displayed since 10 October 2015)
• signatures
• business occupation

Individuals at personal risk of physical harm or violence as a consequence of their personal information being on a Companies House public register will be able to apply to have their information protected from public view.   The timing for this is to be confirmed and we will keep you appraised.

Action will be required over the coming months

We will continue to keep you updated with regard to the timing of the latest requirements from Companies House.  Please be aware that changes may be announced with very short notice and may still be subject to change, however you need to be aware of the planned changes as action will be required.

In March 2024 Companies House were granted more effective investigative and enforcement powers and so any non-compliance is likely to be investigated.

Please be aware that further changes are scheduled for 2026.  We will keep you updated.

We will keep you appraised on the timing of each new requirement however we recommend that you sign up for RPG’s Company Secretarial Services to help you remain compliant.  Full details about RPG’s Company Secretarial Services are here Company secretarial | RPG Chartered Accountants | Manchester   Simply email us at our Manchester office at info@rpg.co.uk and we will arrange a time to discuss your requirements in more detail.