13 June 2016 #Corporate
On 6 April 2016, ‘The Register of People with Significant Control Regulations 2016’ came into effect requiring companies to keep a register of people with significant control (PSC Register) with their company’s statutory books. The Register must include information about ALL individuals (PSCs) and/or relevant legal entities (RLEs, the corporate equivalent of a PSC) who own or control the company. This is in addition to keeping current information, such as registers of members and directors. The Regulations apply to all UK incorporated companies (including those which are dormant) limited by shares, limited by guarantee, unlimited companies, Societates Europaea and LLPs.
Every company will be responsible for providing the relevant information to Companies House and ensuring that information is kept up-to-date. If a company does not already have the required details of a PSC or an RLE it must take all reasonable steps to obtain this information, including contacting anyone who may know or act for them, such as intermediaries or advisors, lawyers, accountants, etc. If such a request does not receive a response, then notice should be served and any PSC or RLE still failing to respond within the notice period of one month will be committing a criminal offence.
An additional change from 30 June 2016 is that the Annual Return, which is currently filed yearly at Companies House, will be replaced by a Confirmation Statement. The information to be included in the Confirmation Statement is largely the same as the Annual Return (company officers, registered address, shareholders, share capital) but the PSC Register must also be delivered alongside the Confirmation Statement.
Contact us if you have any questions about PSC registers or Confirmation Statements, or need help getting these in order.