Companies House plans ECCTA actions

The latest Companies House business plan includes details of its plans relating to ECCTA compliance over the next year. These include:

• prioritising removing inaccurate information on registers, including querying and rejecting information if it is clearly suspicious, false or misleading;
• requiring companies to confirm they are formed for, and continue to act with, lawful purpose;
• requiring appropriate registered office addresses for companies and stopping the use of PO Boxes;
• introducing a registration process for authorised corporate service providers;
• working on the significant changes it needs to make to put proper identification and verification measures in place for individuals, with an aim of having the technical ability to do so by March 2025 before starting a phased roll out process.

Other planned actions include cutting back on the use of corporate directors and processes to improve protection of personal information.

It also plans to develop a strategic intelligence assessment to identify and assess threats posed to the UK through misuse of corporate structures and will continue to work collaboratively with other agencies in relation to money laundering reports it receives.