Date of Implementation of Persons of Significant Control Registers (PSC)

Companies House had a target date of 6 April 2016 for the launch of these public registers (PSC), to achieve this they have been busily rewriting the coding which many would have noticed the slowing down in the times it takes to process various forms. We had become used to the 3 to 4 hour average which has now become closer to the 24 hour target time Companies House set themselves.

Due the volume of work to be undertaken and the various pieces of secondary legislation having to be passed through Parliament the implementation date has been put back to 1 July 2016.

Our programme providers who are still awaiting some of the schematics for the rewriting of our software Are confident that our software will be running and recording information into our registers which are PSC compliant before the official implementation date.

Christmas and Festive Season Opening Times

Christmas and Festive Season Opening Times

Wishing you all a happy seasonal break! It is that time of year again, when myself and Irma actually get a week off! Of course our online company formations and customer AML verification searches do not go off, they run 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

The various Companies House’s though will be open or closed on the days listed below, of course there will be no company filings processed during these times.

  • Thursday 24 December All offices open, but earlier closure at 4pm
  • Friday 25 December All offices closed
  • Monday 28 December All offices closed
  • Tuesday 29 December All offices open
  • Wednesday 30 December All offices open
  • Thursday 31 December All offices open
  • Friday 1 January 2016 All offices closed
  • Monday 4 January 2016 All offices open (apart from Edinburgh which will be closed)

At BTC our last of despatch of physical documents to get there before will be on Friday 18th of December. Of course online PDF’s generated by the systems will be delivered automatically by email as normal.

During week of the 21st, 22nd and 23rd of December there will be some telephone support and full email support. On Christmas Eve we will have some limited email support.

The following week, the 28th is a bank holiday and the 29th 30th and 31st we will have email support and but no telephone support, we are actually having a few days break.

Full service will be back to normal on Monday January 4th 2015, although it is a bank holiday in Scotland.

Companies House Service Update

Suspension on service 9 October

We have been advised by Companies House that submissions to them should cease at midday on Friday 9 October 2015 whilst they carry out updates to their system, and that they will also cease processing Same Day company formation requests after 10am on the same Friday. this Companies House service update is to allow for the changes to the systems which enable part two of the roll out of the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act which takes effect on the 10th October 2015. Continue reading “Companies House Service Update”

Changes to company registrations and officer appointments

The next roll out of the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act, which is phase two of the five stage roll out will take place on the 10th October 2015. The implementation is for partial date of birth suppression, the accelerated strike off time frame and consent to act requirements for company officers.  This makes changes to the current forms used in company registrations and officer appointments  Continue reading “Changes to company registrations and officer appointments”

Changes to the Names Regulations

Changes to the Names Regulations

Changes have been made to the names regulations for improving and simplifying them. It changes have resulted after consultation which also considered the need to maintain the current regulations which, primarily, set out rules regarding ‘same as’ names and ‘sensitive’ words and expressions.

When the changes apply

The regulations came into force on 31 January 2015.

The regulations concerned are:

Email reminders for Annual Filing Documents

Companies House state companies who have switched to email reminders from paper are more likely to file their accounts and annual return on time.

Recent analysis carried out of the Companies House reminder service, which tells companies when their accounts and annual return are due for filing, has shown that email reminders are more successful than paper reminders.

Those companies who have switched to email reminders have improved their compliance rates and, as a result, are less likely to get a penalty for filing their accounts late.

As a company user of Business tax Centre’s electronic filing system your company or companies logged on our system will automatically have this email reminders sent. There is no need to further register the service at Companies House

We recommend that all companies register for the email reminder service. Companies House do intend to withdraw paper reminders in the future as part of their aim to become a fully-digital organisation

Beneficial Owners Legislative Changes

Latest news Issued By Companies House concerning changes to the Companies Act for preparation of new Money Laundering Regulations requiring a public register of any beneficial owner and helping to restore trust and transparency in UK companies.

The measures include abolition of bearer shares and the restriction of corporate directors. better use of the statement of capital and a certificate of no change could see the end of the annual return for many

What?

The Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Bill is currently making its way through Parliament and contains a number of measures which together represent significant change for customers.

Why the changes?

The measures aim to

  • reduce red tape whilst increasing the quality of information on the public register
  • enhance transparency and ensure the UK is seen as a trusted and fair place to do business

 

Impact to customers?

All companies will be affected by at least some changes as the measures will change legal requirements on companies, including what they file.

In order to deliver the measures by their proposed dates, the changes will be made to existing Companies House systems and processes.  Continue reading “Beneficial Owners Legislative Changes”

Companies House Outage

Important Message: Companies House Outage

Please note that Companies House are still experiencing problems since Saturday morning and at this moment in time we do not have an exact time when they will be back up and running, but this is what we do know.

Companies House are currently running a data backup to restore their systems back to how they were before this outage which started on Saturday. They are estimating this backup will not completely until sometime tomorrow morning (Thursday).

All form submissions which are sent to their gateway are being held in a queue and will be processed when their systems are back up and running, but until that time we will continue to accept orders and submissions on our website and form processing and submit them to the Companies House hold queue.

Please note, as I’m sure you are aware, this is completely outside of our control and we are unable to advise on any exact resolution time frame or by pass their hold queue. We are monitoring our systems and maintaining a dialogue with Companies House. As soon as their systems are back up and running our system will automatically start collecting responses from them as soon as they are available for collection.

Companies House Processing Issues

Message from Companies House Concerning their status and down time from 24 August 2014, this message received Tuesday 27th at 11.00 Oclock

Dear Customers,

We are sorry to report that we are still experiencing problems with our internal technical systems.

As we advised yesterday, all of the electronic filings will continue to be queued at our front end.

The teams are continuing to work to resolve the situation but we will be unable to process any submissions today.

We will keep you informed of our progress and apologise once again for any inconvenience caused and thank you for your patience.

Kind Regards,

Marie Flowers MBE

Customer Relationship Manager