UK companies have a legal responsibility to maintain accurate company registers. All company owners should know what statutory registers are and what they are used for. However many companies do not keep these records up to date and do may not even have company registers.
Put simply, company registers (often called statutory registers or statutory books) are a collection of registers recording information relating to the company. The Companies Act 2006 requires these to be kept correct and available for public inspection on request. You should have been provided one by your company formation agent when you registered your company.
These registers must be held at the company’s registered office, or if at another premises, Companies House must have been informed of this address. The statutory registers must hold information in respect of the following-
- Company directors and secretaries
- Shareholders/members of the company. It must also state what shares they currently hold or have held in the past, and the number and class of these shares.
- Any charges relating to property owned by the company (eg; mortgage), or floating charges.
This information is usually kept either as a single bound book or loose leaf folder. However some companies now keep these in electronic format.
Recent changes have also added a register detailing any Persons with Significant Control. Essentially this means information must be held in respect of any person that has-
- Over 25% of nominal value of shares
- Over 25% voting rights
- The right to appoint or remove a majority of the board of directors
- The right to exercise significant control over the company
Should company directors fail to keep these statutory registers properly maintained they will be in breach of the companies Act 2006. Moreover they must be available for public viewing if requested. In the event that the registers have not been kept up to date and maintained, the company and its directors could be liable for a fine. If a request to view these documents is not acted upon within 5 working days of the request, a fine may be issued also.
Requests to view company registers are not common. However, you should keep your registers updated to avoid potential issues. You can purchase company registers online for just a few pounds and keep these at your registered office. These include all the statutory registers and often include additional share certificates.
