Update: Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency
The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act received Royal Assent in October 2023. The Act aims to strengthen systems for collecting, accessing, and displaying information regarding UK companies and limited partnerships and provide greater clarity on overseas entities’ ownership of real estate.
Businesses may now incur criminal liabilities if they fail to take measures to prevent fraud, and it will become easier to prosecute companies for criminal wrongdoing.
The Act will come into force by a series of commencement orders, one scheduled for 4 March 2024.
Incorporations
Companies must now state that they are being incorporated for lawful purposes. There will be stronger checks on company names with additional restrictions to avoid words with suggestions of criminal activity.
Confirmation Statement
There will be additional wording on the confirmation statement to state that the “intended future activities of the company are lawful”.
Registered Email Address
All companies incorporated on 4 March 2024 must have a registered email address (REM) – due on the date of their next confirmation statement. Companies incorporated after that must have a REM address on incorporation.
The Registrar of Companies will use the REM to communicate with the company. The REM will not be made public or used by anyone other than the Registrar.
Registered Office Address
Companies are currently required to provide a registered office address. New requirements will make using PO Boxes for this purpose more difficult. An address will only be valid if any documents delivered to that address are expected to come to the company’s attention.
Enhanced power for the Registrar of Companies
The Registrar will have additional powers to query or reject new filings and already filed documents. There will be enhanced powers to query information and request supporting evidence. They will have the power to annotate entries with data that appears to be appropriate to address any confusion that may arise where material previously considered to be part of the register is contradictory to current material. Steps will also be taken to clean up the register, with data matching to identify and remove inaccurate information.
This is just the beginning of a raft of changes to company law over the next 12 months.
For more information about this article or any other aspect of Corporate law, contact your Napthens Solicitors in Preston, Blackburn, and across the North West today.
