The end of keeping registers at Companies House

From 30 June 2016 a private company could elect to keep the information from its registers of members, directors, directors’ residential addresses, secretaries and people with significant control on the central register at Companies House instead of in its own books. The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 closed that option in two steps: the officer and PSC elections fell away on 18 November 2025, when those local registers were abolished for every company, and the members’ election was removed on 26 January 2026. A company that had elected for its members must now keep its own register of members again, written up as though it had never elected.

What was the central register option?

The option came from amendments made by the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015 and, according to the Companies House guidance on company registers, applied from 30 June 2016 to private companies only. Instead of keeping a register at the registered office or an alternative inspection location, the company delivered the information to the registrar and kept it up to date there. Subscribers could elect on incorporation, or the company could elect later; the election took effect when the registrar registered it.

Each register had its own statutory home in the Companies Act 2006:

• members: section 112A and Chapter 2A of Part 8 (sections 128A onwards);
• directors and directors’ residential addresses: sections 167A to 167F;
• secretaries: a parallel set of provisions in Part 12;
• people with significant control: Chapter 4 of Part 21A, starting at section 790W, headed “Alternative method of record keeping”.

An existing company could only elect for members if all the members agreed, and a PSC election needed 14 days’ notice to registrable persons with no objection. The price was privacy: members’ addresses became public, as did the full date of birth of directors and PSCs. A company that elected after incorporation kept its old “historic register”, noted but no longer updated.

What happened on 18 November 2025?

Section 51 of and Schedule 2 to the 2023 Act, headed “abolition of local registers etc”, were brought fully into force on 18 November 2025 by regulation 2(1)(i) of the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 (Commencement No. 6 and Transitional Provisions) Regulations 2025 (SI 2025/1118). Schedule 2 omits sections 161A to 167F of the Companies Act 2006 and Chapter 4 of Part 21A. Companies House guidance, withdrawn on 17 November 2025, summarised the effect: from 18 November 2025 companies no longer have to hold registers of directors, directors’ residential addresses, secretaries or PSCs, and can no longer elect to hold information about their officers on the central register.

For a company that had elected for its directors or PSCs, this changed little. Every company now reports officer information straight to Companies House: section 167G requires notice within 14 days when someone becomes or ceases to be a director, and section 167H within 14 days of any change in a director’s required information. There is no local register of directors or PSCs to rebuild. Our page on changing director details covers those notices, and people with significant control covers the PSC side.

There was one transitional rule aimed at elected companies. Regulation 6 of SI 2025/1118 provides that if, immediately before 18 November 2025, a company owed a notice under the old section 167D(2) (the elected company’s duty to notify changes) and had not given it, it had to give the corresponding notice under section 167G or 167H within 14 days beginning with 18 November 2025. Regulation 7 does the same for outstanding PSC notices.

How was the members’ election removed?

Section 49 of the 2023 Act omits section 112A and Chapter 2A of Part 8, which, in the Act’s own words, “allow companies to keep information on the central register instead of entering it in their local register of members”. Schedule 1 makes consequential amendments elsewhere in the 2006 Act. Both came into force on 26 January 2026 under the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 (Commencement No. 7) Regulations 2026 (SI 2026/57), made on 23 January 2026. The explanatory note to those regulations says they remove the option for companies to keep member information on the central register, including a transitional provision for companies which keep information there.

From that date every company is back under the general rule in section 113: it must keep a register of its members.

What must a company that had elected do now?

The transitional provision is new section 128ZA of the Companies Act 2006. Where an election was made under section 128B before its repeal:

• the company must enter in its register of members all of the information it would have had to enter if the election had never been made (section 128ZA(1)(a)); and
• that duty is treated as imposed by the provision that would have required the entry in the first place (section 128ZA(1)(b)).

In practice that makes it a section 113 duty. Section 113 requires the names and addresses of members, the date each person was registered as a member and the date any person ceased to be one, and, for a company with share capital, the shares held by each member (by number, if numbered, and by class, if there is more than one class) and the amount paid or agreed to be treated as paid. Default is an offence by the company and every officer in default, with a fine up to level 3 on the standard scale and a daily default fine for continued contravention (section 113(7) and (8)).

This is wider than the old voluntary withdrawal, where the Companies House guidance said a company need not enter historic information from the election period. Section 128ZA asks for everything that would have been on the register had there been no election, which on its face includes members who joined and left in the meantime.

Dates are dealt with by section 128ZA(2). While an election was in force, a company could leave out the date a person ceased to be a member where that date would be the date of registration, and tell the registrar to use the registration date instead. In those cases the date to enter is the date the registrar recorded under section 1081(1A).

The register must then be kept available for inspection at the registered office or at a place specified in regulations under section 1136 (section 114(1)). If it is kept anywhere other than the registered office, the company must notify the registrar of where it is kept (section 114(2) and (3)).

1. Download the members’ filings made during the election from the company’s public record, and start from the frozen historic register if there is one.
2. Write up each member chronologically, using the registrar’s recorded date wherever the company relied on registration dates.
3. Decide where the register will be kept, notify Companies House if that is not the registered office, and minute the board’s approval.

Does the information already at Companies House still count?

Yes, as evidence of the past. Schedule 1 to the 2023 Act inserts section 127(2), which makes the central register prima facie evidence of anything a company was required to deliver to the registrar under Chapter 2A because of an election made before that Chapter was repealed. Section 127(3) excludes the statements that accompanied the election itself, under the old section 128B(5)(b) and (6).

The information also stays visible. The Companies House guidance explained that members’ details delivered during an election, including addresses, remain part of the public register after an election ends, and that the same applies to directors’ and PSCs’ details, including full date of birth. Anyone worried about personal details already on the register should look at suppressing information from the register.

How might this work in practice?

Illustration only. A company was incorporated in 2017 and its subscribers elected on incorporation to keep members’ information on the central register, so it never had a historic register. Amir held 60 ordinary shares and Beth 40, all fully paid. In 2021 Beth transferred her 40 shares to Carl. The company notified the registrar, and for Beth’s cessation it asked the registrar to use the date of registration.

The company now writes up a register showing Amir from incorporation with 60 shares; Beth from incorporation with 40 shares, ceasing on the date the registrar recorded; and Carl from his registration date with 40 shares, each marked fully paid. It keeps the register at its registered office and updates it whenever shares change hands.

What mistakes should companies avoid?

• Assuming Companies House still holds the register. Since 26 January 2026 it does not; the company must keep its own register of members.
• Recording only current members. Section 128ZA asks for the information that would have been entered had there been no election, not just today’s shareholders.
• Reviving registers that no longer exist. There is no longer a statutory register of directors, residential addresses, secretaries or PSCs to keep; the duty is to notify Companies House within the time limits. See statutory registers for what a company must still keep.
• Treating this as a one off tidy up. The reconstructed register is the live legal record from now on, so share allotments and transfers must be entered as they happen.

For the wider reforms, see the ECCTA implementation timeline and the overview of the Act.

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Related Accountapedia entries

• When PSCs must verify their identity
• What if the statutory registers are not up to date
• Companies House identity verification
• Protecting a director’s home address
• How to appoint a company director

Sources

• GOV.UK: Company registers
• legislation.gov.uk: Act 2006 c. 46, section 1132A
• legislation.gov.uk: SI 2025/1118
• legislation.gov.uk: Act 2023 c. 56, schedule 2
• legislation.gov.uk: Act 2006 c. 46, section 167A
• legislation.gov.uk: Act 2006 c. 46, section 790W
• legislation.gov.uk: Act 2023 c. 56, section 49
• legislation.gov.uk: SI 2026/57
• legislation.gov.uk: Act 2006 c. 46, part 8
• legislation.gov.uk: Act 2006 c. 46, section 128ZA

Reviewed by Christine Anderson, Broker, Solar Protect. Last reviewed 8 October 2026. Part of Accountapedia, the Solar Protect guide to UK tax and accounting. This page is general information, not personalised advice.