The Joint Stock Companies Act 1844 permitted the incorporation of joint-stock companies, previously only possible by the mechanisms of royal charter or private act, which had meant few companies were formed. The act required that all companies formed under it were recorded on a public register, and created the office of Registrar of Joint Stock Companies to be responsible for maintaining the register. Company registration in Scotland commenced in 1856, with the first company registered being 'The Daily Bulletin Limited'. The first Registrar of Joint Stock Companies for Scotland was George Deane, from 1856 to 1858, before he was transferred to the London office of Companies House to be Chief Clerk to the Registrar for England and Wales. The remaining staff were transferred to the office of the Queen's and Lord Treasurer's Remembrancer, who took on the role of Registrar of Companies for Scotland. In 1982 the post of Q<R was transferred to the Crown Agent, and the staff and functions relating to company registration in Scotland were transferred to the Department of Trade and Industry on 1 April 1981. In October 1988, Companies House became an executive agency of the Department of Trade and Industry, and then in October 1991 started to operate as a trading fund, self-financing by retaining income from charges. Companies House is also responsible for dissolving companies. In 2020, there were approximately 4.3 million businesses on the Companies House register.
Response to 2020 pandemic
In view of the coronavirus pandemic, from 25 March 2020 companies were able to apply for a three-month extension to the annual deadline for filing their accounts and reports.
England and Wales
are treated as a single jurisdiction with a unified register, separate from those of Scotland or Northern Ireland. Companies must advise Companies House of their intended registered office, which may be in England and Wales, in Scotland, or in Wales. Consequently, on incorporation, companies will be either 'Registered in England and Wales', 'Registered in Scotland', or 'Registered in Wales'. Effectively, companies in England must register in England and Wales, companies in Scotland must register in Scotland, while companies in Wales may choose to register in either England and Wales, or in Wales. Although their legal registration is in either England and Wales, or in Wales, according to Companies House companies must display the company registered office location in a manner similar to one of the following suggested formats: The Companies House office in Cardiff handles companies incorporated in England and Wales. These companies are subject to English law. Until 2011 there was another office at Nantgarw, Wales. The London office at Petty France is purely a facility to file and view documents, which are then processed in Cardiff. The Registrar of Companies for England and Wales is the Chief Executive Louise Smyth. The role of Chief Registrar is not a political one and the incumbent is a civil servant. All companies registered in England and Wales have 8-digit registration numbers.
Scotland
The Edinburgh office handles companies incorporated in Scotland. These companies are subject to Scots law. Scottish company registration numbers are prefixed by the letters SC.
Northern Ireland
The Companies Act 2006 was fully implemented on 1 October 2009 and the Northern Ireland companies register was fully integrated into Companies House. Companies House maintains a satellite office in Belfast, headed by the Registrar of Companies for Northern Ireland. Before 1 October 2009 all limited companies in Northern Ireland were registered with the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment and were subject to Northern Ireland law.
All companies are required to appoint one or more directors and generally it is up to the members to appoint the people they believe will run the company well on their behalf. The only restrictions that prevent anyone becoming a director are they must be at least 16 and:
In February 2008, The Times and Computer Weekly broke a story that almost 4,000 of the names on the Companies House register of directors were on international watchlists of alleged fraudsters, money launderers, terror financiers and corrupt officials. The results came from Datanomic who had screened the 6.8 million names on the register against a World-Check database of high risk individuals and businesses. The exercise also revealed more than 1,500 disqualified company directors were being allowed to run other UK companies as Companies House was not checking names against its register of disqualified persons.
