Companies House UK

Much of the information that is collated into a checkSURE Company Credit Report comes from information that all UK companies file into Companies House. Companies House therefore plays a very large role in the collecting of company information for the public record.

What is Companies House?

Since 1844, the United Kingdom has set up a system of company registration, and this has led to the Companies Act 1985 and 1989 whereby company registrations are dealt with by law.

Companies House in the UK is an Executive Agency of the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR). All limited companies within England, Wales and Scotland must be registered at Companies House and are required to file certain documents as required by the Companies Act 1985 and the updating legislation contained within the Companies Act 1989.

The Main Functions of Companies House UK

Companies House is the holding database of all live and dissolved limited companies, listed below are its main functions:

They incorporate and dissolve limited companies;
they must examine and store all the information that is delivered to them under the Companies Act and related legislation;
and lastly, they are required to make the information they store available to the public.

The “life” of all limited companies within the UK is therefore recorded in Companies House and this information is made available to the public.

The Registrar of Companies

Companies House is also known as the Registrar of Companies, this is because one of its main functions is to register companies. However the title is also applied to the current Chief Executive of Companies House.

There are two Registrar of Companies:

Gareth Jones is based in Companies House Cardiff for England and Wales, and
Dorothy Blair is based in Edinburgh for Scotland.

There is also an Information Centre in London.

Companies House London Information Centre

Relocated to Bloomsbury Street in January 1999, the Companies House London Information Centre’s main functions are to provide company information and to receive statutory documents.

Click on the link below to find out more information on:
Companies House London Information Centre.

The Board and Management at Companies House

Companies House in the UK is an Executive Agency of the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR). The agency has a Trading Fund Status, allowing the agency to manage its own finances directly.

Gareth Thomas MP, Parliamentary under Secretary of State for Trade and Consumer Affairs, is the Minister that is responsible for Companies House. The current Chief Executive, Gareth Jones, is responsible for the day to day running of the agency; he is also responsible to the Secretary of State.

Companies House has a Board of Directors and also a Steering Board. The Steering Board is made up of the senior BERR personnel and also independent members from the private sector, all supported by the Companies House Directors. The composition of the Steering Board reflects on Companies House’s aim of drawing on best practices from both the public and private sectors, they therefore meet quarterly to provide advice on the governing of the agency, looking at the corporate plan, its targets and its performance.

Events Held by Companies House

Companies House organises and attends many varieties of events every year to advise and support companies and businesses. They also travel throughout the UK to: promote the services of Companies House; provide companies and businesses with opportunities to meet and discuss various issues with their staff; and to advise them on meeting their obligations under the Companies Act.

The events that Companies House organise and attend include:

Companies House Information Days – these are three and a half hours long and are free to attend and are held to help companies keep on the right side of the law.
Exhibitions – Companies House attend and support a variety of exhibitions throughout the year. The main aim of these is to introduce Companies House to new customers and raise awareness of their role in the legal obligations of running a limited company.
Focus Groups – these are held by Companies House so that they can highlight any problems and improve their services.
Webfiling and Companies Act 2006 Seminars – the aim of these is to inform customers of the Webfiling system and demonstrate how easy it is to use. These seminars will also include presentations of the new Companies Act 2006 and help businesses understand and implement its full changes.

Companies House Library

This is an online library that provides access to all of Companies House’s published data and materials in a single, convenient and easily accessible location on their website. The material is separated into different topic areas. These are:

Corporate Information and Documents – these include Companies House Annual Reports and Accounts in a pdf format, Strategic Direction, Business Plan Summary and Complaints Adjudicator’s responses.
Policy Documents – this contains information on Companies House’s external and internally focussed policies that they maintain.
Guidance – an area that contains all their published guidance booklets.
Online Forms – a list of online forms that are available for download.
Register Magazine Archive – an area where Companies House archive their past Register Magazines.
Company Policy Changes and
Miscellaneous area.

Companies House and the Freedom of Information and Data Protection

Information that is filed into Companies House is legally available to the public; this means that any member of the public is allowed to request information from Companies House. This is due to the following two principal statutory rights:

Freedom of Information Act – this Act came into force in 2005 and it allows general right of access for members of the public to any recorded information held by public authorities – this includes information held by Companies House.
Data Protection Act – due to the Data Protection Act 1998, any person wanting to obtain a copy of the information that Companies House may hold on them is able to do so.

Contacting Companies House

Companies House has set up many ways that you can contact them if you have any queries or require any advice on registering companies or filing Companies House Documents.

If you want to contact Companies House by post, there are three addresses, they are:

Main Office - Companies House, Crown Way, Maindy, Cardiff. CF14 3UZ
Edinburgh - Companies House, 37 Castle Terrace, Edinburgh. EH1 2EB
London (Information Centre) - Companies House Executive Agency, 21 Bloomsbury Street, London. WC1B 3XD

If you want to speak to someone, you can ring the Companies House Contact Centre on 0870 333 3636. The Contact Centre is open from 8.30am to 6.00pm from Monday to Friday, except for national holidays.

Alternatively, you can contact Companies House via email at:
enquiries@companies-house.gov.uk

Companies House Today

Companies House today holds the records of 2.5 million companies and their mission is to be:

“The foundation of company information exchange in the UK: helping business, informing the public and benefiting the economy”

As a public authority and an agency that registers companies and hold company data within the UK, Companies House is continuing to find ways to simplify and improve their existing services. To this end, their vision is to be:

“A world-class information provider – accessible, easy to use and customer focused: exchanging information; creating benefits.”

They are at present trying to make it easier for companies to use their secure online electronic system, Webfiling, as it is simpler, faster and more secure. However they still accept information by paper as they realise that some companies do prefer it.

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