Companies House was established in 1844. It operates on a passive basis, registering new companies and updates to company information with very few safeguards, save to check that documents received have been fully completed and signed.

It's the quick and easy (not to mention, cheap) nature of registering a company via Companies House which makes the UK a popular place to start a business, no matter where you're based in the world.

Unfortunately this also leaves the door open for fraudulent and misleading filings. As of March 2022 it was estimated that of the 4.9m companies that were registered with Companies House as much as 20% of the data related to them may have been false.

Now, 180 years since its establishment, Companies House is set to undergo the biggest “clean-up” in its history. As part of the government's efforts to tackle economic crime and drive confidence in the UK economy, the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 (ECCTA) sets out a number of Companies House reforms to improve transparency and the accuracy of data on its registers.  Such reforms include:

• Compulsory identity verification checks for all new and existing company directors and persons of significant control (PSCs) as well as anyone who files information on behalf of a company or individual.
• New powers for Companies House to query and remove information that it suspects to be false, fraudulent or inaccurate.

Measures under the ECCTA are to be implemented as soon as 4 March 2024 although, as they require secondary legislation, the actual date these changes will come into force is dependent on parliamentary timetables.

One thing's for certain, this spring clean is likely to stretch several years.

To keep updated on what’s changing for you and your company – and when – use our ECCTA toolkit here.