The Government have now published three further consultations to take forward its plans to reform the UK’s register of company information and give businesses greater confidence in who they are doing business with.

These consultations follow the Government’s response to the 2019 consultation to enhance the role of Companies House and increase the transparency of companies and other legal entities, which was published on 18 September 2020.

 The key proposals of the consultations are:

 Accounts filing consultation: This consultation invites views on how  companies might in future be able to file accounts once with government, instead of providing separate filings to Companies House, HMRC and other agencies. We are also reviewing the way small companies submit accounts to get the balance right between minimising burdens whilst ensuring the information provided is actually informative. We are also proposing to require all companies to file accounts to Companies House in digital formats, and to give Companies House more powers to check information in those accounts. 

 https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/corporate-transparency-and-register-reform-improving-the-quality-and-value-of-financial-information-on-the-uk-companies-register  

 Querying power consultation: Companies House will have new powers to query information, which will be exercised on a risk-based approach. The consultation also explores how its powers will be strengthened in a range of areas, including to close various loopholes and remove information from the companies register.

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/corporate-transparency-and-register-reform-powers-of-the-registrar 

Corporate directors’ consultation: To tackle opaque corporate structures, we propose that corporate directors will be prohibited unless their own boards comprise all natural persons, and those natural persons have their identities verified.

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/corporate-transparency-and-register-reform-implementing-the-ban-on-corporate-directors

You can read more about the consultations here:  https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-launches-consultations-to-crack-down-on-company-fraud-and-improve-corporate-transparency