Companies Act

The sheer scale of the change has been very challenging for companies House and there were some areas that were under particular pressure. The main area of concern focussed around company incorporations. The new incorporation requirements, together with the technical issues, resulted in backlogs and delays. Our thanks go to the registration customers who worked closely with us whilst the processing resource was substantially increased, and operations streamlined to ensure all issues were identified, addressed and resolved as soon as possible.

We are continuing to engage with our customers to provide solutions to ongoing issues, and fixes are deployed to alleviate problems as soon as they are identified.

On a positive note, all Companies House online services remained operational and the highest number of transactions this year were processed in October, in excess of ¾ million. Companies House also opened for business in Belfast, where the office (formerly Companies Registry Northern Ireland), has become fully integrated.

These website pages have been designed to inform you of the current system, policy and examination issues and keep you up to date on their resolution and progress. This information was updated on 25/01/2010.

Issue	Comments
On incorporation and at change of name, some company names are appearing as the ‘same as’ company names currently on the register	In addition to the existing name and number search, Companies House are developing an online ‘same as’ names checker that will be available via WebCheck, XML and Businesslink
Memorandum of Association	The memorandum must be submitted in the prescribed form. However to help customers adjust to this revised way of working, we will accept a memorandum that contains extra-statutory information on the subscriber’s addresses and the amount of shares taken, only until 6th April 2010. Until 6 April 2010 Companies House will allow the Memorandum to contain extra- statutory information on the subscriber’s addresses and the amount of shares taken.
Articles of Association	Agreement has been reached to accept a reduced copyright statement on articles with amended provisions or bespoke articles: The Association of Company Registration Agents Limited 2009. All rights reserved.
Statement of Capital	A number of issues have been raised on various aspects of the statement of capital requirements. Therefore BIS have produced a consultation document the results of which will be published shortly.
Prescribed Particulars	Companies House will check the prescribed particulars of shares all incorporations. Additional information on this has been added to the capital section of our Frequently Asked Questions.
Administrative Restoration	Applications will be rejected if they are not accompanied by all the required documents and the fee. This applies to companies dissolved under the 85 and 06 Acts.