Company House: What Are Their Functions?

Business, Skills and Innovation is a government department within which Companies House is located. Limited liability partnerships and limited companies are governed and incorporated in the UK under it. The UK Company register functions in three separate countries: Northern Ireland, Scotland, and England & Wales.

Inspection and maintenance of company information are major duties of Companies House. All businesses and the general public can access the information on the company register online. The UK is the first country in the world to offer free electronic data, making an extremely accessible and obvious register of corporate information. As a result, every public company transacting business in the UK can be effortlessly monitored and inspected.

Which kinds of businesses are registered at Companies House?

The Companies House approves the incorporation of limited companies. It is possible to register a limited company online through a company formation representative (an agent) or the Web Incorporation Service. If you want to set up your company by mail, you can use a paper application form. Incorporating a general partnership or a sole trader is never handled by Companies House.

Companies House allows incorporation of the following types of business:

• The company is a public limited company (PLC).
• Incorporated as a limited company by shares
• The unlimited company, private
• It is a private company with no share capital (private limited company by guarantee)
• (GP04) European Economic Interest Groups
• The limited liability partnership
• Limited partnership
• Public businesses in Europe
• A company with an international presence
• On the register of Companies House, more than 3 million limited companies are consistently listed, and over 550,000 new companies are incorporated each year. According to the latest statistics (September 2015), there were 3,588,482 businesses registered with Companies House.

Companies House offers a variety of services

The company formation firm, Companies House, provides mailing and online company formation services, and maintains a searchable electronic database that contains the details of each corporation, as well as providing a few information services to the entire public.

Beta version of Companies House

Companies House provides free access to every public record of a registered business in the United Kingdom, including:

• The company’s registration number (CRN)
• Status of the company
• Incorporation date
• Type of company
• Names of previous companies
• Business nature
• A list of all shareholders
• Secretaries and directors currently serving and those who have resigned
• Address of registered office
• Images of issued and filed documents
• Capital share
• Deadlines for filing accounts and yearly returns
• Information about bankruptcy
• Documentation details

An application program interface (API) or an internet service can be used to access the data. To access this corporate information, you do not need to register with Companies House. All you have to do is enter the company name or director’s name, and the results will be displayed.

Filings on the Companies House Web site

Companies House accepts documents and information via web filing services instead of posting them. In addition to being much safer, more effective, and more cost-effective when information is sent by digital means, there are far fewer data and document rejections when sent this way as well. Additionally, customers receive an email confirmation immediately after submitting their form. Web-Filing can be used for sending the following documents and information:

• Accounts annuals
• Returns for the year
• The details of the company have been changed
• Inactive (dormant) accounts
• Appointment and removal of directors and secretaries
• Resolution copies
• Allotment of shares

The process of using Web-Filing begins by registering via email and requesting a confirmation code. Its electronic equivalent (equivalent to a director’s signature).

Web Check for Companies House

Access to information about UK-registered limited companies is made available through this service to businesses and the general public. A majority of the documents are available as images, which can be downloaded for free within minutes. There is, however, some administrative fee associated with some reports and documents.

Everyone can access the following information about the company for free:

• Type of company
• Date of incorporation
• Name and registration number of the company
• Address of registered office
• Business nature
• Date of reference for accounting
• Status of the company
• Dates on which the last accounts and yearly returns were filed
• The due date for next year’s accounts and yearly returns
• Type of account, e.g. abbreviated, full, dormant
• Names of companies in the past
• Director and secretary details

Company House Direct

It is a subscription service that makes all Companies House records available to the general public. Currently, over 130 million documents are available, spanning nearly two decades. Customers can search for offers by company name or name and download documents in TIFF or PDF for as little as £1 each, but it costs £4 monthly to access the service.

In either case, you can search for the following information by the name of the officer or the company:

• Reports on the company
• Historical records of the company presented as images
• Consultations
• Appointments at the company
• Order certified certificates online
• A comprehensive guide to mortgages
• Directors who have been banned
• Company dissolutions
• Details of the liquidation