The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill is likely to receive Royal Assent within the next two to three months.

When it does, the new Act will have a significant impact on your company.  A snapshot of some of the anticipated changes are below:

• All new individual (which is to say, non-corporate) directors need to be ID Verified BEFORE their appointment. Failure to comply with this will put the new director and the company at risk of a civil penalty and any actions taken by the individual, in their capacity as director, before verification, will be considered void. 
• All new Persons with Significant Control (“PSC”) will need to be ID Verified; Failure to comply with this will put the company and PSC at risk of a civil penalty.
• All existing non-corporate directors and PSCs will need to be ID Verified.
• Corporate directors: Only one ‘layer’ of corporate directors will be permissible. i,e.  a corporate director cannot itself  have a corporate director and corporate directors must be companies registered with Companies House.
• Abridged and filleted accounts will be abolished.
• A company’s Register of Members will no longer be able to be kept on the Central Register at Companies House.  It must be maintained internally on a local register.  Additionally, the full names and addresses of all members will need to be included on all Confirmation Statements, following the Act coming into effect. For public companies this will only apply to members with 5% or more of the shares.
• All other registers must be kept on the Central Register (Companies House) and will no longer be able to be retained on a local register. 

We will update you further once the Act has been finalised.  If you would like any further information, or are concerned about any of these changes, please contact us.