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Companies House CEO Louise Smyth said the new ACSP regime is a step towards a more transparent and secure business environment in the UK. “Requiring third-party agents to register as authorised corporate service providers will provide assurance that identity checks they carry out achieve the same level of assurance as identity verification directly through Companies House.”
Companies House will also aim to facilitate a higher level of cross checking and data sharing with other bodies, including law enforcement. Accounts reform Currently, entities qualifying for the small companies regime or microentities have the option to file abridged or ‘filleted’ accounts with the registrar.
Companies House now already requires that the registered office should be an actual address, not a PO Box and that if they write to the company at that address, somebody will see it. Further details. For more on these changes, read our webinar summary article. Interested in the full discussion? Watch the webinar here.
Companies House can suspend or deauthorise an ACSP if we think it is no longer fit and proper to perform these functions. “ACSPs will be required to keep records relating to identity verification checks they complete and respond to Companies House spot checks. Failure to comply will be a criminal offence.”
What about when Companies House makes a mistake? I made a correct submission last week but there are some letters missing from the name of the PSC I removed on the filing showing at Companies House. The name was correct and the email confirmation was correct but they removed the first and last letter of her name and put a different effective date.
Companies House should really validate users to manage capacity and stop the bots. I would not object if everyone had to log in to access the free data, provided that this remained a free service. It seems to be the norm for a government service to be poor at getting their digital offering correct - looking at you HMRC, too.
I'm presuming (hoping) that various CPD providers will duly provide something that will tick the box as sufficient training in detecting false documents - training that seems to be a Companies House requirement if you're validating documents yourself..
We have some more detail from Companies House concerning confirmation of ID of directors/PSCs and approval of ACSPs (Authorised Corporate Service Providers).
Companies House has advised the director: You are unable to file an amending annual return (AR01) under The Companies Act 2006. However, depending on the circumstances, there are 3 options to send a corrected Return (AR01) to Companies House: Point 1 - You can complete another AR01 made up to a later date which shows the correct details.
Companies House has already begun a proactive approach to monitoring company records, particularly focusing on identifying and stopping potentially fraudulent formations. They are reviewing over 1 million company records, targeting cases where companies might have been formed under false pretences or with inaccurate information, such as incorrect addresses.