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Companies House’s first set of changes to the Companies Law set forth on the 4th of March 2024. What are these changes mean for you and your company?

08/03/2024

Downing the web-incorporation system and online filing services even for a short period of time meant a backlog of new registration filings with some companies, submitted on a standard registration service, pending in a queue for nearly 48 hours. Same-day incorporation submissions have been processed in a timely manner without much delay.

In any case, delays have been expected, and we are sure, the Registrar will plough through all the back log and will be back to usual processing time as early as next week. And while they do that, let’s touch on what the first changes mean for you and how to make sure your business is compliant.

Businesses, entrepreneurs, company formation agents and corporate service providers, as well as any intermediaries acting on behalf of the business want to make sure they are up to date with the current legislation and ready to take right steps at the right time to make sure they remain complaint with new Company Regime.

With many changes still in the pipeline, these are three changes to the Companies Law that have come in force on the 4th of March 2024 that you need to be aware of.

The first set of changes implemented by Companies House on March 4th, 2024, focused on strengthening transparency and preventing misuse of the company register. Here's a breakdown of the key changes.

Stricter Rules for Registered Office Address

"Appropriate" Registered Office Address: As of 4th of March 2024, Companies require to have an "appropriate" (physical) address as their registered office address at all times. An address would be considered appropriate for the purpose of new legislation when:

  • any documents that are addressed to the company and sent to its registered office address are expected to come to the attention of a person acting on behalf of the company;
  • any mail or documents sent to that address attention of the company can be recorded by an acknowledgement of delivery;

This new measure ensures a valid location for receiving and recording important documents addressed to the company.

Under the new legislation, use of the PO boxes as company’s registered office address is no longer possible. Any company that has been using PO boxes service as registered office address to receive it’s official correspondence from the Companies House and HMRC, will must have updated their registered office address to an appropriate location ahead of 4th of March.

Any company that doesn’t have an appropriate registered office address on or after the 4th of March 2024 is being at risk of struck off for non-compliance and its directors disqualified.

Having Coddan as your Registered Office Address service provider will ensure that your company is up-to-date and fully compliant with the latest letter of the law. So, why not look at the various packages available for the Registered Office Address or a Virtual Office Address Service available on our web-site.

Mandated Registered Email Address

Registered email address: From 4 March 2024, there’s a new requirement for all companies to provide Companies House with a registered email address for communication with Companies House. This email address remains confidential and won't be placed on public records.

New companies need to provide this information during incorporation process, any existing company will need to update their details during their next confirmation statement filing.

Companies will have a duty to maintain an appropriate registered email address, in the same way as their registered office address. Any company that does not comply with the requirements of the law will be committing an offence under the new Company Law.

Confirmation of Lawful Purpose

Lawful Purpose for Company Registration: When incorporating a company, from 4 March 2024, shareholders or members of the legal entity (subscribers to the Memorandum of Association for Private Limited Company or Guarantors for the Companies Limited by Guarantee) will need to confirm to the Registrar of Companies (Companies House) that they are forming the company for a lawful purpose.

Confirmation of Lawful Purpose will also constitute a part of the annual confirmation statement filing, and each year going forward, at the time of filing its annual confirmation statement, company will need to confirm that its intended future activities are still of a lawful purpose.

The aim of these new statements is to make it clear that all entities maintained on the Companies Registrar’s Records - new and existing - have a legal duty to operate in a lawful way. To this effect, Registrar of Companies may take actions against any company if they receive information which confirms that business isn’t operating lawfully.

These initial changes represent a significant step towards a more robust and reliable Companies House register, making it more difficult to misuse the system for fraudulent activities.

We hope you find this information helpful. Should you have any questions or concerns, do get in touch with us by email or phone, and although we might not be able to provide answers to complex queries, our team will do its best to guide you.