As you may be aware the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill is currently progressing through Parliament.
The Bill seeks to deliver the biggest upgrade to Companies House since the UK first introduced a register of companies in 1844. Companies House will also be undertaking a transformation programme which will see changes to many of our processes and services, to ensure we are ready to implement our new powers when the Bill receives Royal Assent.
The new Bill will implement changes this year that will directly impact the following service transactions:
• Incorporation,
• Confirmation Statement
• Change of registered office address
If you offer your users any of the above services, then you may need to make technical changes to your software systems, so that those transactions are legally compliant once the new requirements of the Bill are implemented.
The biggest change is for a limited company to provide a registered email address when it’s incorporated, and for existing limited companies to provide a registered email address on their first confirmation statement after the requirement is introduced. Once provided, the company will be able to change its registered email address, if it needs to, through a separate transaction - in much the same way they can update their registered office address.
There are also new declaration statements that will need to be included on incorporation, confirmation statement and change of registered office transactions.
Companies House is working on the changes to the XML schemas for the transactions mentioned and plans to publish these in the next 6-8 weeks.
The earliest date these changes will be implemented is 1 August 2023 - this date is dependent on the Royal Assent date of the Bill, which can move. We will keep you informed of the any changes to expected implementation dates of these changes.
SDN