Persons with Significant Control (PSC) and Confirmation Statements

Persons with Significant Control (PSC) and Confirmation Statements

The Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act will see the introduction of Persons with Significant Control (PSC) and the Confirmation Statement which will replace the Annual Return.

Persons with Significant Control (PSC)

From April 2016, UK companies and Limited Liability Partnerships are required to keep a register of Persons with significant control (PSC). 

Who is a PSC?

A PSC is anyone in a company or LLP who meets one or more of the conditions listed in the legislation. This is a person or legal entity who:

• owns more than 25% of the company’s shares
• holds more than 25% of the company’s voting rights
• holds the right to appoint or remove the majority of the board of company directors
• otherwise has the right to exercise, or actually exercises significant influence or control
• has the right to exercise significant influence or control over the activities of a trust or firm which in turn meets any of the four conditions above

One of the reasons behind this change is to improve transparency around who owns and controls UK businesses. This is also a measure to improve the UK’s reputation as a fair place to do business.

For more information and guidance on PSC’s visit – Requirements for Companies and LLP’s

Confirmation Statement – ‘Check and Confirm’

The new changes will also see the replacement of the Annual Return with the requirement to file a confirmation statement.

All companies are currently obliged to file a return annually with the Registrar of Companies giving detailed information in relation to the company, its shareholders, directors and share capital.  However, in many cases this simply duplicates information filed previously, either in earlier annual returns or in event-driven filings made to record changes made by the company during the year.  

The new confirmation statement is due to replace the annual return from June 2016 and will not require previously delivered information to be repeated.  Instead a confirmation will be given by the company that all specified information has either been delivered to the Registrar as required during the year, or is being delivered with the confirmation statement.  

Unlike the annual return, there will be no set date each year on which the confirmation statement needs to be made.  It can be made at any time, although no more than 12 months must elapse between confirmation statements and once a confirmation statement has been made a new 12 month period starts to run.  This rolling 12 month window means that a company can combine making a confirmation statement with another filing at any point during the year if this is administratively easier.  The company will not then need to make another confirmation statement for a further 12 months.

IRIS is dedicated, as ever, to our compliance guarantee which will provide our users with the ability to create their PSC Registers from our spring release, while providing the ability to file the relevant information to Companies House from the 30 June 2016.

Why not see how IRIS can help you with company administration – click here for more information