Important Reforms To Companies House

In a drive to clamp down on money laundering and other forms of fraud, the Government is reforming Companies House. There is a significant change coming in the very near future ...

The biggest change is that directors cannot be appointed to the company unless their identity has been verified. This is designed to help trace criminals, and Companies House will be given far superior powers to investigate and remove false information.

"The Government feels this will give other businesses more confidence in whom they are doing business with!"

These changes will vastly improve the National Crime Agency's ability to trace suspects' activities as identity verification will be fast and efficient, taking only a few minutes per inquiry. It shouldn't have that much of an impact on how long it takes to incorporate a company.

Companies House data informs transactions between many businesses and also underpins credit scores and, subsequently, lending decisions. In the last 12 months alone, this data was accessed over 9 billion times, and studies suggest transactions of over £3bn are a result of these searches.

"The Government is bringing forward legislation to get these changes into law!"

Further consultations will be made on other changes under consideration, and this broader transformation of Companies House can only bring more benefits to business by streamlining and digitising processes and services.

I'll blog about any more important reforms to Companies House once we know more.

If you feel inspired to find out more about anything I've said here, do call me on 01908 774320 or leave a comment below and I'll be in touch as soon as I can.