The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 is now on the statute books. The Act brings about some of the most significant changes to Companies House since it was established, giving it the tools to play an expanded role in tackling economic crime. 

Reforms include:

• Identity verification for company directors, people with significant control, and those who file on behalf of companies.
• Companies House will become a more active gatekeeper over company creation.
• Introduction of measures to improve the reliability and accuracy of information on the register. 
• Further measures to protect the personal information of individuals and prevent fraud.
• Companies House will gain better investigation and enforcement powers.

The reforms introduced by the Act will be implemented in stages, with some, such as identity verification, likely to need a longer lead time due to the technology and processes which need to be in place before going live. There are no concrete timings yet, but today’s Companies House blog post gives some helpful pointers on timescales, as well as a summary of the upcoming changes and what happens next.  

The Act will also implement other reforms, some of which we looked at in our earlier article. 

We will keep you posted on implementation of the Act over the coming months.