Companies House are investigating companies that have administrative errors on disclosures of PSCs (persons with significant control). The reported companies are being contacted by Companies House with a request to immediately update the public record to show the full position of a PSC.
The 2 most common discrepancies being highlighted are:
1. The prescribed particulars attached to the shares state that the shares have voting rights, yet the PSC information supplied on incorporation states the only nature of control is the ownership of shares, voting rights should also be shown as a nature of control.
2. The PSC supplied at incorporation holds a significant number of shares and voting rights, yet the nature of controls supplied for that PSC do not reference the ownership or voting rights of shares. They state that the PSC has influence and control over the company, which suggests the PSC has influence or control in some other way. In this scenario the nature of control is through shares and voting rights.
One example, where there is only one shareholder, the information entered for the PSC is likely to be that of the shareholder and the shares and voting rights provided should mirror the percentage of shares held and the voting rights attached to those shares.
Companies House are continuing to contact companies with incomplete declarations and from our research, it is likely that many PSC disclosures will need to be corrected by further filings.
Contact us if you need assistance in this area.