Register of people with significant control

All companies (except certain listed companies) and Limited Liability Partnerships (LLP’s) are required to keep a register of people with significant control (PSC register) and, file relevant information at Companies House. This requirement is in addition to those in respect of existing registers. The requirement to keep a PSC register has the objective of increasing transparency over control and ownership of UK firms and companies. However, this places additional obligations on their officers and the people with significant control over them.

 

What are the requirements?

 

The requirements include:

  • Taking reasonable steps to find out whether there are people with significant control (PSCs)
  • Contacting people identified as relevant, or others who may know them, to confirm whether they are a PSC
  • Obtaining or confirming relevant information to put in the PSC register
  • Putting information obtained into the PSC register
  • Keeping the PSC register up to date.

 

Though the LLP/company’s own register must be kept up to date, initially changes were recorded annually at Companies House using the Confirmation Statement. The firm/company would ‘check and confirm’ that the information held at a given due date was accurate. Now each change has to be updated on the register within 14 days and notified to Companies House within a further 14 days.

 

Where the LLP/ companies have elected to hold their own register on the public record at Companies House instead of in statutory records at their registered office, they must update this information in real time.

 

What is meant by a PSC?

 

A PSC is defined as an individual in an LLP that:

  • Directly or indirectly holds rights over more than 25% of the surplus assets on a winding up,
  • Directly or indirectly holds more than 25% of the voting rights,
  • Directly or indirectly holds the right to appoint or remove the majority of those involved in management,
  • Otherwise having the right to exercise, or actually exercising, significant influence or control,
  • Holding the right to exercise, or actually exercising, significant influence or control over the activities of a trust or firm which is not a legal entity, but would itself satisfy any of the first four conditions if it were an individual.

A PSC is defined as an individual in a company that:

  • Holds, directly or indirectly, more than 25% of the shares or voting rights in the company
  • Holds the right, directly or indirectly, to appoint or remove a majority of the board of directors of the company
  • Has the right to exercise, or actually exercises, significant influence or control over the company
  • Where a trust or firm would satisfy any of the above conditions, any individual that has the right to exercise, or actually exercises, significant influence or control over the activities of that trust or firm

An LLP/ company must take reasonable steps to identify its PSCs. Some companies may have no PSCs or find it easy to ascertain who the PSCs are, but others may have to carefully follow all the steps laid to out to try to establish if there are any PSCs and, if so, their identity and details.

 

What information is required to be kept on the register?

 

The PSC register must be kept, and it cannot be blank!  Where, for example, a company is in the process of obtaining information or confirming, a specific statement to that effect is required by law to be made in the PSC register.

 

New information must be entered on your firms/ company’s PSC register within 14 days and filed with Companies House within a further 14 days. Failure to comply with these requirements is a criminal offence.

 

The particulars of a relevant individual that are required to be obtained and

confirmed for inclusion in a firm/company’s PSC register include:

  • Their name
  • Their date of birth
  • Their nationality
  • The country, state (or part of the UK) in which the PSC usually resides
  • A service address
  • Their usual residential address (if different to the service address)
  • The date on which the individual became a PSC in relation to the company
  • The nature of the PSC’s control over the company
  • Any restrictions on disclosing the PSC’s information that are in place.

A specific statement is also required in the PSC register if you believe the firm/ company has no PSCs.

 

Do PSCs have any obligations?

 

There are a number of legal obligations on a PSC. For example, a relevant individual that does not respond to requests for PSC information may be committing a criminal offence. A firm/company is also entitled to apply restrictions to shares or rights in the company held by the individual who is not responding.

 

Is information held on the PSC register publicly available?

 

Almost all of the information on the central PSC register is available to the public. The only information that will not be available is the PSC’s usual residential address (unless this has been supplied as the service address) and the day of the PSC’s date of birth. The PSC register that you keep must be available for public inspection, but you should not provide the usual residential address of any PSC when it is inspected.

 

If you choose to keep your PSC register only at Companies House then all of the information that would otherwise appear in the firm/ company’s PSC register will be available publicly. This means your PSC’s full date of birth will appear, but the residential address will still be suppressed.

 

This publication is produced by Francis Clark LLP for general information only and is not intended to constitute professional advice. Specific professional advice should be obtained before acting on any of the information Contained herein. Whilst Francis Clark LLP is confident of the accuracy of the information in this publication (as at the date of production), no duty of care is assumed to any direct or indirect recipient of this publication and no liability is accepted for any omission or inaccuracy.

 

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