Companies House is the United Kingdom's registrar of companies, an executive agency and trading fund of Her Majesty's Government. It falls under the remit of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and is also a member of the Public Data Group.
All forms of companies (as permitted by the United Kingdom Companies Act) are incorporated and registered with Companies House and file specific details as required by the current Companies Act 2006. All registered limited companies, including subsidiary, small and inactive companies, must file annual financial statements in addition to annual company returns, which are all public records. Only some registered unlimited companies (meeting certain conditions) are exempt from this requirement.
The United Kingdom has had a system of company registration since 1844. The legislation governing company registration matters is the Companies Act 2006.
Types of companies the Companies House can offer to register, includes:
- Public limited company (PLC)
- Private company limited by shares (Ltd, Limited)
- Private company limited by guarantee, typically a non-commercial membership body which may, or may not, be charitable (Ltd, Limited)
- Private unlimited company (either with or without a share capital)
- Limited liability partnership (LLP)
- Limited partnership (LP)
- Societas Europaea (SE): European Union-wide company structure
- Companies incorporated by Royal Charter (RC)
- Community interest company (CIC) : Usually a standard ltd company but regardless of the companies articles it must reinvest any and all profit
- Charitable incorporated organisation (CIO): a charity with limited liability
Over 3 million limited companies are consistently accessible on the register of Companies House, with about 550,000 new companies that are incorporated yearly. Based on the latest statistics (September 2019), the Companies House’s register had over 4 mln registered businesses!
Companies House jurisdictions and locations
The UK has three separate legal systems – England & Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. As a result, Companies House has three different registrar branches, each of which deals with companies incorporated in their own jurisdictions. A fourth office is located in London, but this serves only as an information center where documents can be delivered and filed, and search services carried out on limited companies registered in the UK.
- Companies House Cardiff Office, Crown Way, Cardiff, CF14 3UZ, is responsible for companies registered in England and Wales, which are subject to English Law.
- Companies House Edinburgh Office, 4th Floor, 2 Edinburgh Quay, 139 Fountainbridge, Edinburgh, EH3 9FF is responsible for companies registered in Scotland, which are subject to Scots Law.
- Companies House Belfast Office, 2nd Floor The Linenhall, 32-38 Linenhall St, Belfast, BT2 8BG, is responsible for companies registered in Northern Ireland, which are subject to Northern Irish law
