Economic Crime & Corporate Transparency Act 2023 – Abolition of Certain Statutory Registers and Changes to Register of Members from 18th November 2025

Abolition of Statutory Registers

Companies House has confirmed that the abolition of certain statutory registers will take effect from 18th November 2025. From this date, companies will not be required to create or maintain:

• a register of directors;
• a register of directors’ residential addresses;
• a register of secretaries; or
• a register of persons with significant control (PSC).

As at present, the information which would otherwise be recorded in these registers will still need to be provided to Companies House. This must be within 14 days of an appointment/resignation or a change in particulars occurring. In relation to changes to a company’s PSCs, this information must be notified within 14 days of receiving confirmation of the relevant details. This aims to reduce the time lag that had existed in the previous system between companies updating their local PSC register and informing Companies House.

Notification of director appointments will also need to be accompanied by a statement that their identity is verified along with their personal identification code and a statement that the person is not disqualified from being a director.

Companies may still wish to maintain the information that was previously held in these registers for their own internal purposes. This can be done by creating and maintaining internal company registers of relevant information but this is no longer a statutory requirement.

The Register of Members

Companies will, however, continue to be required to keep a register of members. The option for private companies to elect to use the central register held by Companies House in lieu of entering members’ information on their own, locally held register of members, is also removed. This means that all companies must maintain their own register of members, which must be held at their registered office address or single alternative inspection location and must record the full names and addresses of all members.

New duties are also imposed on members to notify companies of all information required to be included in the register of members (being the member’s full name and service address) and any changes to that information. Companies can also now serve a notice on members requiring them to provide this information. Failure to supply the information or making a false statement in relation to it will be a criminal offence.

New and updated templates

Companies must therefore adapt their processes and ensure they comply with the new requirements.

Considering this and helping companies navigate this process, we have both updated and created new applicable guidance and templates. 

These templates include:

• Updated guidance notes in relation to the register of members.
• New guidance notes on the abolition of statutory registers.
• New letters to shareholders each with a pro-forma reply, for providing information in relation to the register of members (to comply with sections 113A & 113F Companies Act 2006).
• Updated company registers that should now only be used for internal purposes.