49-668: Companies House is the executive agency of the British Government that maintains the register of companies , employs the company registrars and is responsible for incorporating all forms of companies in the United Kingdom . Prior to 1844, no central company register existed and companies could only be incorporated through letters patent and legislation . At the time, few incorporated companies existed; between 1801 and 1844, only about 100 companies were incorporated. The Joint Stock Companies Act 1844 created
98-455: A Wales criminal justice system . England and Wales are treated as a single unit for some purposes, because the two form the constitutional successor to the former Kingdom of England. The continuance of Scots law was guaranteed under the 1706 Treaty of Union that led to the Acts of Union 1707 , and as a consequence English law—and after 1801 , Irish law —continued to be separate. Following
147-533: A royal charter , by private act of Parliament , or, from 1834, by letters patent . Few companies were incorporated, with only approximately 100 companies being incorporated by private act between 1801 and 1844. At this time, no central register of companies was in existence. The origins of Companies House date back to 1844, the year the Joint Stock Companies Act received royal assent , enabling companies to be incorporated by registration for
196-579: A Lloegr ) is one of the three legal jurisdictions of the United Kingdom . It covers the constituent countries England and Wales and was formed by the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542 . The substantive law of the jurisdiction is English law . The devolved Senedd (Welsh Parliament; Welsh : Senedd Cymru ) – previously named the National Assembly for Wales – was created in 1999 under
245-573: A centralised register of companies, enabled companies to be incorporated by registration, and established the office of the registrar; the Joint Stock Companies Act 1856 mandated separate registrars for each of the three UK jurisdictions . Initially just a brand, Companies House became an official executive agency in 1988. All public limited , private limited , private unlimited , chartered and some other companies are incorporated and registered with Companies House. The agency also registers limited partnerships , while most other enterprises fall under
294-493: A mere repository of documents into an entity that proactively supervises company registration procedures and plays a role in preventing economic crimes. Central to the act is the requirement for identity verification of individuals wishing to incorporate a company, including directors, people with significant control (PSCs), and members of Limited Liability Partnerships (LLPs). This measure is set to apply to all new and existing directors and PSCs. The role of Registrar of Companies
343-630: A timetable for their introduction. Since June 2016, private companies can elect to keep certain statutory records on the central register which is held and published by Companies House, instead of maintaining their own registers. These records include: In February 2008, The Times and Computer Weekly broke a story that almost 4,000 of the names on the Companies House register of directors were on international watchlists of alleged fraudsters, money launderers, terror financiers and corrupt officials. The results came from Datanomic who had screened
392-428: A unique name. Whether a name is unique or not is determined by Companies House; certain terms and punctuation, and characters after the first 60, are completely disregarded when assessing the uniqueness of a name, and other characters, although strictly different, are deemed to be the same as each other. Companies may not have names which if used would constitute a criminal offence , or which are offensive. Approval from
441-568: Is Louise Smyth, who also serves as chief executive of Companies House. The Registrar of Companies for Scotland, is based at Companies House, Edinburgh , and is responsible for the registration of companies in Scotland. The current registrar is Lisa Davis. The Registrar of Companies for Northern Ireland is based at Companies House, Belfast , and is responsible for the registration of companies in Northern Ireland. The current registrar
490-440: Is Lynn Cooper. Companies House acts as registrar for the following types of company: Despite its name, Companies House acts not only as registrar for companies, but also for the following undertakings: Companies House does not act as registrar for the following undertakings: The Register of Companies is the index of every undertaking registered with Companies House. Every undertaking registered with Companies House must have
539-653: Is a part of a government department that is treated as managerially and budgetarily separate, to carry out some part of the executive functions of the United Kingdom government , Scottish Government , Welsh Government or Northern Ireland Executive . Executive agencies are "machinery of government" devices distinct both from non-ministerial government departments and non-departmental public bodies (or " quangos "), each of which enjoy legal and constitutional separation from ministerial control. The model has been applied in several other countries. Agencies include well-known organisations such as His Majesty's Prison Service and
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#1732765876845588-654: Is merely a brand adopted by the registrars. Company registration in Scotland commenced in 1856, with the first company registered being the Daily Bulletin Company Limited , a newspaper publisher. The first Registrar of Joint Stock Companies for Scotland was George Deane, from 1856 to 1858, before he was transferred to the London office of Companies House to be Chief Clerk to the Registrar for England and Wales. The remaining staff were transferred to
637-646: Is not a political one, and the incumbent is a civil servant . The Registrar of Companies for England and Wales is based at Companies House, Cardiff , and is responsible for the registration of companies in England and Wales. Until 2011 there was another Companies House office in Nantgarw , Wales. The London office of Companies House, located at Petty France , is purely a facility to file and view documents, which are then processed in Cardiff. The current registrar
686-620: The Department for Business and Trade from 7 February 2023 following a Machinery of Government change initiated by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak . The current chief executive is Louise Smyth, who also serves as registrar for England and Wales . The agency, as well as British company law in general, are governed by the Companies Act 2006 . As of August 2023, Companies House maintains 5.32 million active companies. Prior to 1844, companies could only be incorporated through grant of
735-556: The Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (2007), the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (2009), and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (2016). Companies House was a member of the Public Data Group , an advisory board which between 2011 and 2015 sought to improve public access to government data. Companies House is also responsible for dissolving companies. In 2020, there were approximately 4.3 million businesses on
784-629: The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency . The annual budget for each agency, allocated by HM Treasury , ranges from a few million pounds for the smallest agencies to £700m for the Court Service . Virtually all government departments have at least one agency. The initial success or otherwise of executive agencies was examined in the Sir Angus Fraser's Fraser Report of 1991. Its main goal was to identify what good practices had emerged from
833-765: The Government of Wales Act 1998 and provides a degree of self-government in Wales. The powers of the legislature were expanded by the Government of Wales Act 2006 , which allows it to pass its own laws , and the Act also formally separated the Welsh Government from the Senedd. There is no equivalent body for England , which is directly governed by the parliament and government of the United Kingdom . During
882-623: The Roman occupation of Britain , the area of present-day England and Wales was administered as a single unit, except for the land to the north of Hadrian's Wall – though the Roman-occupied area varied in extent, and for a time extended to the Antonine/Severan Wall . At that time, most of the native inhabitants of Roman Britain spoke Brythonic languages , and were all regarded as Britons , divided into numerous tribes. After
931-498: The Secretary of State is required if a company wishes to use a name indicating a connection to government, or other so-called 'sensitive' words or phrases. Generally, undertakings registered with Companies House are required to indicate their legal form in their names: Notwithstanding the above, private limited companies need not indicate their legal form in their names if they are charities , exempted by new regulations made by
980-652: The red dragon of Wales was dropped and replaced with the unicorn of Scotland with the succession of King James I who demoted Wales' status on the coat of arms and on the first adaptation of the Flag of Great Britain . Prior to 1746, it was not clear whether a reference to "England" in legislation included Wales, and so in 1746, Parliament passed the Wales and Berwick Act 1746 . This specified that in all prior and future laws, references to "England" would by default include Wales (and Berwick-upon-Tweed ). The Wales and Berwick Act
1029-580: The 20th century. Examples are the Welsh Language Acts 1967 and 1993 and the Government of Wales Act 1998 . Measures and Acts of the Senedd apply in Wales, but not in England. Following the Government of Wales Act, effective since May 2007, the Senedd can legislate on matters devolved to it. Following a referendum on 3 March 2011 , the Senedd gained direct law-making powers, without
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#17327658768451078-602: The 6.8 million names on the register against a World-Check database of high risk individuals and businesses. The exercise also revealed more than 1,500 disqualified company directors were being allowed to run other UK companies as Companies House was not checking names against its register of disqualified persons. In July 2023, the Companies House independent adjudicators' report 2022-2023 was published. This revealed that Companies House had given false information to an MP to try to make themselves look better. "A letter to
1127-623: The Act. The Act provided for two types of company registration: provisional, and complete. The filing requirements for complete registration were more extensive than those for provisional registration. Given that there was no requirement for companies granted a certificate of provisional registration to submit the remaining information in order to become completely registered, the Act was not hugely successful as many of its provisions applied only to completely registered companies. The Joint Stock Companies Act 1844 applied only to England and Wales , and Ireland ; it did not apply to Scotland . Prior to
1176-425: The Companies House register. In the same year Companies House ceased to operate as a trading fund. In view of the coronavirus pandemic , from 25 March 2020 companies were able to apply for a three-month extension to the annual deadline for filing their accounts and reports. The Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act 2020 made this extension automatic for filing deadlines between 27 June 2020 and 5 April 2021; after
1225-623: The Department of Trade and Industry, and then in October 1991 started to operate as a trading fund , self-financing by retaining income from charges. When the Companies Act 2006 was fully implemented on 1 October 2009, the Northern Ireland companies register was fully integrated into Companies House; previously, all limited companies in Northern Ireland were registered with the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment . As government departments were reorganised, Companies House came under
1274-756: The Great in his Legal Code , c. 893 . However, after the Norman invasion of Wales in the 11th century, English law came to apply in the parts of Wales conquered by the Normans (the Welsh Marches ). In 1283, the English, led by Edward I , with the biggest army brought together in England since the 11th century, conquered the remainder of Wales , then organised as the Principality of Wales . This
1323-485: The Registrar of Joint Stock Companies under the 1844 Act. The aim of this act was to incentivise the creation of new joint stock companies, while giving investors, the majority of whom did not play an active role in day-to-day management, protection from liabilities incurred by company directors. The Joint Stock Companies Act 1856 abolished the dual registration system of the 1844 Act; provisional registration ceased to be possible. In exchange for providing shareholders with
1372-576: The Secretary of State, or subject to a continuing exemption. Every undertaking registered with Companies House is issued with a registered number. Once issued, a registered number remains the same, even if the undertaking changes its name. Registered numbers consist of eight digits, and in certain circumstances a two letter prefix, including: The Register of Companies contains certificates of incorporation for all undertakings incorporated by registration with Companies House. Incorporation takes place on
1421-415: The United Kingdom. By 1997, 76% of civil servants were employed by an agency. The new Labour government in its first such report – the 1998 Next Steps Report – endorsed the model introduced by its predecessor. A later review (in 2002, linked below) made two central conclusions (their emphasis): " The agency model has been a success . Since 1988 agencies have transformed the landscape of government and
1470-712: The United States, the Clinton administration imported the model under the name "performance-based organizations." In Canada, executive agencies were adopted on a limited basis under the name special operating agencies . One example is the Translation Bureau under Public Services and Procurement Canada . Executive agencies were also established in Australia, Jamaica, Japan and Tanzania. England and Wales England and Wales ( Welsh : Cymru
1519-553: The benefit of limited liability, companies were required to submit certain information to the Registrar for Joint Stock Companies, including memoranda and articles of association (which had not previously been divided in this way), and annual reports. The 1856 Act also mandated that there be a Registrar of Companies for each of the UK's three jurisdictions. This system remains today, with a separate Registrar of Companies for England and Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland; 'Companies House'
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1568-501: The commencement of the Limited Liability Act 1855 , shareholders were generally treated similarly to partners in a common law partnership , and had unlimited liability for the debts and obligations of the companies in which they held shares . From 1855, it became possible for shareholders to benefit from limited liability as a matter of routine, provided the companies in which they held shares were registered with
1617-743: The complainant’s Member of Parliament was riddled with wrong information, which showed Companies House in a better light." 51°29′58″N 3°11′22″W / 51.4994°N 3.1895°W / 51.4994; -3.1895 Executive agency King Charles III [REDACTED] William, Prince of Wales [REDACTED] Charles III ( King-in-Council ) [REDACTED] Starmer ministry ( L ) Keir Starmer ( L ) Angela Rayner ( L ) ( King-in-Parliament ) [REDACTED] Charles III [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] The Lord Reed The Lord Hodge Andrew Bailey Monetary Policy Committee An executive agency
1666-638: The conquest, the Romans administered this region as a single unit, the province of Britain . Long after the departure of the Romans, the Britons in what became Wales developed their own system of law , first codified by Hywel Dda (Hywel the Good; reigned 942–950) when he was king of most of present-day Wales (compare King of Wales ); in England Anglo-Saxon law was initially codified by Alfred
1715-420: The first time. The Act created the office of the Registrar of Joint Stock Companies to maintain the register of companies, which was publicly accessible. It was hoped by MPs of the day that a publicly accessible central company register would help to protect the public from fraud . All companies, irrespective of their method of incorporation, were obliged to register within three months of the commencement of
1764-405: The following information: A limited partnership comes into existence once its certificate of registration has been signed or sealed by the registrar. Companies House does not verify the accuracy of information filed. The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy announced in 2020 that Companies House would be given powers to verify the identities of company directors, but did not set
1813-473: The following information: Incorporation of a limited liability partnerships is complete once the certificate of incorporation is signed or sealed by the registrar. Limited partnerships are not issued with certificate of incorporation upon registration with Companies House, but instead with certificates of registration. This is because limited partnerships are not legal persons and therefore are not created by incorporation. Certificates of registration include
1862-467: The issuance of a certificate of incorporation by the registrar. Private limited companies can be issued with a certificate of incorporation within 24 hours of an application being submitted. Certificates of incorporation for companies include the following information: Registration of companies is complete once the certificate of incorporation is signed or sealed by the registrar. Certificates of incorporation for limited liability partnerships include
1911-442: The latter date, companies could again apply for a three-month extension. There were also temporary extensions to the deadlines for filing confirmation statements and certain event-driven filings. The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 , receiving royal assent on 26 October 2023 and coming into force on 4 March 2024, signifies a major legislative reform for Companies House. The Act aims to transform Companies House from
1960-515: The law applicable to that business entity. A registered office must be specified as "in Wales" if the company wishes to use a name ending cyfyngedig or cyf , rather than Limited or Ltd. or to avail itself of certain other privileges relating to the official use of the Welsh language. Outside the legal system, the position is mixed. Some organisations combine as "England and Wales", others are separate. The order of precedence in England and Wales
2009-536: The legal system of the Kingdom of England. This was in part to update outdated Welsh laws, but also to control Wales alongside England; through these acts, the Welsh could be seen as equals to the English. This was reflected on both Henry VIII and Elizabeth I 's coat of arms where the dragon represented Wales and the lion represented England. As soon as the Tudor dynasty ended with the death of Elizabeth I , however,
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2058-527: The need to consult Westminster. This was the first time in almost 500 years that Wales had its own powers to legislate. Each piece of Welsh legislation is known as an Act of Senedd Cymru . For a company to be incorporated in the United Kingdom, its application for registration with Companies House must state "whether the company's registered office is to be situated in England and Wales (or in Wales), in Scotland or in Northern Ireland", which will determine
2107-407: The new model and spread them to other agencies and departments. The report also recommended further powers be devolved from ministers to chief executives. A series of reports and white papers examining governmental delivery were published throughout the 1990s, under both Conservative and Labour governments. During these the agency model became the standard model for delivering public services in
2156-531: The office of the Queen's and Lord Treasurer's Remembrancer (Q<R), who took on the role of Registrar of Companies for Scotland. In 1982 the post of Q<R was transferred to the Crown Agent , and the staff and functions relating to company registration in Scotland were transferred to the Department of Trade and Industry on 1 April 1981. In October 1988, Companies House became an executive agency of
2205-489: The purview of the Financial Conduct Authority . All limited companies (including subsidiary, small and inactive) must file annual financial statements with Companies House, all of which are public records. The agency is also responsible for dissolving companies. From 2016, Companies House operated under the authority of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy . This then became
2254-421: The responsive and effectiveness of services delivered by Government." Some agencies have, however, become disconnected from their departments ... The gulf between policy and delivery is considered by most to have widened." The latter point is usually made more forcefully by critics of the government, describing agencies as "unaccountable quangos ". Several other countries have an executive agency model. In
2303-407: The two Acts of Union, Parliament can restrict the effect of its laws to part of the realm, and generally the effect of laws, where restricted, was originally applied to one or more of the former kingdoms. Thus, most laws applicable to England also applied to Wales. However, Parliament now passes laws applicable to Wales and not to England (and vice versa), a practice which was rare before the middle of
2352-485: Was repealed by the Welsh Language Act 1967 , although the statutory definition of "England" created by that Act still applies for laws passed before 1967. In new legislation since then, what was referred to as "England" is now "England and Wales", while subsequent references to "England" and "Wales" refer to those political divisions. There have been multiple calls from both Welsh academics and politicians for
2401-528: Was then united with the English crown by the Statute of Rhuddlan of 1284. This aimed to replace Welsh criminal law with English law. Welsh law continued to be used for civil cases until the annexation of Wales to England in the 16th century by the Welsh House of Tudor . The Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542 then consolidated the administration of all the Welsh territories and incorporated them fully into
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