New Regulations under ECCTA to Widen Circumstances for Individuals to Protect their Usual Residential Address from Appearing on Companies Register

Welcome news for directors, members and subscribers who have previously used their usual residential address (URA) as their company’s registered office address (ROA). Since 27th January 2025, new regulations made under the Economic Crime & Corporate Transparency Act 2023 (ECCTA) have widened the circumstances in which individuals can apply to protect their URA from appearing on the companies register. 

The ECCTA has reformed the role and powers of the registrar to include the prevention of abuse of personal information on the companies register.

It is a common concern for individuals that have previously used their URA as a company’s ROA, often when starting up a company, that they will subsequently wish to have this suppressed from the public register. Up to now, Companies House had no power to do this and there had been no formal procedure for requesting it. The Companies and Limited Liability Partnerships (Protection and Disclosure of Information and Consequential Amendments) Regulations 2024 came into force on 27th January 2025 and enable an individual to apply to protect a URA where it was previously used as a company’s ROA (although not where it is used as a company’s current ROA). The individual does not need to meet any conditions or provide any justification to do this.

In consideration of these new regulations, for companies that have previously had a URA as its ROA or are proposing to change their ROA from a URA, we have added the following new content:

• Board minutes as evidence of a company’s decision to change their ROA from a URA and that the company will facilitate the protection of the URA as part of this process;
• A letter from a company to its officers/PSCs/members/subscribers confirming the change of its ROA from a previous URA and outlining the process of removing the URA from the public register; 
• Confirmation from the relevant company officer, PSC, member or subscriber that the company may undertake this process on their behalf; and
• Companies House form SR01 to implement the process.

Public disclosure of an individual’s URA has long been known to pose a significant security risk and is open to potential abuse. These regulations provide a much needed and long-awaited solution to the problem of suppressing an individual’s URA from public view.

The regulations can be accessed here.