LLPs & Economic Crime Act

Updated as of 4th March 2024

Any entity which registers at Companies House falls within scope of the reforms being implemented under The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act (ECCTA). This includes LLPs.

What does this mean for LLPs? 

On 4th March 2024, regulations were published which applied the first company law reforms under the ECCTA to LLPs. The changes largely mirror those made for companies.

As of 4th March 2024:

• An LLP must ensure that its registered office is situated at an "appropriate address" where it can acknowledge receipt of documents.
• An LLP will need to provide, with its next confirmation statement, a registered email address to which Companies House can send electronic communications. This will need to be provided at incorporation for newly incorporated LLPs.
• It is not be possible to register an LLP under a name designed to facilitate criminal purposes, which suggests a connection with a foreign government, or which contains computer code.
• An individual may not be a member of an LLP if they are disqualified from acting as a company director. If a member becomes disqualified, the members of the LLP are required to remove that member. If they fail to do so, they commit a criminal offence.
• All LLPs must confirm  annually via the confirmation statement that their future activities will be lawful.
• All information that LLPs submit to the Registrar will be subject to the same level of scrutiny as that submitted by companies. The Registrar will be able to query the information that is held on an LLP and proactively exchange information with other bodies. 

Going forward (but likely to be within 2024):

• All members of LLPs will be required to verify their identity.
• All their PSCs will also be required to verify their identity.
• Where a member is a corporate entity, all of the directors (or equivalents) will also be required to verify their identity.
• Many LLPs provide formation and filing services. If an LLP wishes to deliver documents to Companies House while providing these services for another company or firm, the LLP must register as an Authorised Corporate Services Provider (ACSP). A precondition of authorisation is that it is supervised for anti-money laundering purposes in the UK. When they seek to form an entity or to file on their behalf, they will then be required to confirm that the identities of all directors (or their equivalents) associated with that entity have been verified, to a standard that is at least the equivalent of those conducted by Companies House.
• LLPs that are general partners of LPs, and which are also corporate entities, will be required to name a managing officer who is an individual, for the purpose of communicating with the general partner and the new corporate director reforms will apply to LLPs acting as corporate directors. An LLP will only be able to act as a corporate director if all its members have had their identity verified.