Corporate transparency reforms: Dissolved company records returning to Companies House and further reform ahead

As of 22 January 2021, the Companies House Service (CHS) has stopped removing dissolved company records from their register, and reinstated those records for all companies dissolved since January 2010. This has resulted in an additional 1.5 million company records being uploaded. Previously, records of dissolved companies were removed from CHS after 6 years from the date of company dissolution.

Instead, records will now be kept for 20 years. Such records are currently available on other Companies House products for a fee, but CHS intends in the long term to make them freely and publicly available once the law is changed to allow greater protection of personal information on the public register.

(Much) more to come:

This measure is part of a broader corporate transparency initiative proposed by the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) to clamp down on fraud and money laundering and also give businesses greater confidence in transactions. The UK government’s plans were set out in a response to its 2019 consultation on corporate transparency and register reform. Other proposed reforms to be enacted include:

• Compulsory identity verification for all directors, persons with significant control (PSCs) and those filing information to CHS on behalf of a company;
• Stronger powers for the Registrar of Companies to query, seek evidence for, amend or remove information and to share it with law enforcement partners when certain conditions are met; and
• A new power for CHS to query, and possibly reject, company names before registration.

Further consultation:

In addition, BEIS are currently running 3 further consultations on corporate transparency reform, seeking views on:

• New powers for the registrar;
• Improving the quality and value of financial information on the UK register;
• Implementing the ban on corporate directors.

The consultation on corporate directors proposes a prohibition on such directors unless the company boards comprise all natural persons, and those natural persons have their identities verified. The goal is to tackle opaque company structures whereby use of corporate directors muddies the waters around ownership and provide a screen behind which to conduct illicit activity.

All 3 consultations are due to close at 11:45pm on 3 February 2021, and responses can be submitted through the government’s website.

For more information, please contact Nick Alfillé or a member of our Corporate team.