Changes to company register requirements from 18 November 2025

The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 (ECCTA) has introduced sweeping changes to the processes involved in operating UK companies. Companies House has announced that, from 18 November 2025, the requirement for companies to maintain certain local registers of information about company officers and controllers will be removed. Instead, companies will be subject to augmented filing obligations at Companies House. 

Information to be filed at Companies House

Although ECCTA became law in October 2023, the changes brought about by the legislation are being implemented on a rolling basis. Reforms include the removal of the requirements under the Companies Act 2006 for companies to maintain their own:

• Register of persons with significant control (PSCs)
• Register of directors
• Register of directors’ residential addresses
• Register of secretaries

Companies House has announced that the requirement to maintain these registers will be removed from 18 November 2025. 

The obligation to maintain these registers will be replaced with a requirement to file specified information at Companies House. The Companies House record will become the verified source of information in respect of these registers.
 
The announcement from Companies House doesn’t cover limited liability partnerships (LLPs), although we anticipate that the requirement for LLPs to maintain a PSC register will also be removed on 18 November. 

Register of members

Companies are required under the Companies Act 2006 to maintain a register of members, and this obligation will continue.

The register of members is vitally important because it is prima facie evidence that a person whose name is on the register is a member of the company, and holds the shares stated in the register as being held by them. A person whose name is not on the register may still be a member of the company but, if there’s a dispute, they would need to go to court to seek an order to rectify the register to include (or reinstate) their name on the register. 

The register of members must contain the following particulars:

• The names and addresses of the members
• The date on which each person was registered as a member
• The date on which any person ceased to be a member
• In the case of a company having a share capital, there must be entered in the register, with the names and addresses of the members, a statement of:
  • The shares held by each member, distinguishing each share:
    • By its number (so long as the share has a number)
    • By its class (where the company has more than one class of issued shares)
  • The amount paid or agreed to be considered as paid on the shares of each member

In recent years, private companies have had the option to elect to hold their register of members centrally at Companies House. However, take-up of the option has been low, and most companies have kept the information in their own internal register of members. From 18 November 2025, ECCTA will remove the option for companies to hold their register of members centrally. Instead companies will have to hold their own register of members either at the company’s registered office address, or at a single alternative inspection location (SAIL), if applicable. 

Next steps for you

If you’re a company director you should:

• Review your company’s registers of directors, directors’ residential addresses, secretaries and PSCs and check that the information required to be set out in them is readily available and up-to-date
• As a matter of good corporate governance, check your register of members is up-to-date too

If your register of members has been held centrally at Companies House, make arrangements for this register to be held internally within the company from 18 November. You’ll need to: 

1. Create a register of members
2. Hold the register of members at the company’s registered office address or SAIL address
3. Include a statement in the register of members that before this change, the information about the company’s members was held on the ‘central register’
4. Make this register available for the public to view

While ECCTA will remove the obligation for a company to maintain its own statutory registers of directors, directors’ residential addresses, secretaries and PSCs, there’s nothing to stop companies continuing to maintain these registers as their own internal documents. Consider whether it would be useful from a corporate governance perspective to keep up these registers on an ongoing basis. In addition to the registers required by statute, many companies already maintain other registers of corporate information (such as registers of share allotments, share transfers and debenture holders) and these are often helpful for prospective buyers or investors in evidencing the company’s corporate history.  

What do I need to do next?

If you have any questions, please get in touch with your usual contact at Mills & Reeve or alternatively refer to the Government website Changes to company registers - Changes to UK company law which sets out information on the changes to company registers.