The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act - the White Paper attained Royal Assent in October

The new measures encompass the following areas: -

Improving the quality of data on the registers

Greater powers for Companies House to query information, stronger checks on company names, new rules for registered office addresses, and new lawful purpose statements.

Identity verification

Identity verification for anyone setting up, running, owning or controlling a company in the UK.

Changes to accounts

Transitioning towards filing accounts by software only, and changes to small company accounts filing options.  

Confirmation statement changes

New requirements to provide a registered email address and to confirm that the future activities of the company will be lawful.  

Changes to Companies House fees

Increasing fees to take new future expenditure into account, as well as making sure costs are recovered from existing expenditure. 

Protecting your information

Individuals will be able to apply to suppress personal information from historical documents, and apply to have personal information protected from public view because of risk of harm.  

Changes to limited partnerships

Limited partnerships will need to file their information through authorised agents, and they’ll need to file more information with Companies House.

Investigation, enforcement and data sharing

More effective investigation and enforcement powers for Companies House, and new powers to share data with law enforcement agencies and other government departments.