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 4 March 2024.

The reforms will contribute to making the information held in the company register more reliable and usable, protecting individuals and businesses from fraud and preventing 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 and will continue to do so every 12 months until 2030.

The report notes that between 4 March and 1 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 1 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 is much harder to make anonymous filings and discourage those who try to hide company ownership through nominees or opaque corporate structures.

To read the report in full, see: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/economic-crime-and-corporate-transparency-act-2023-progress-report