This blog post was originally published in 2016. Visit our guidance page for the latest information on this topic.
Update: From 26 June people with significant control (PSC) information won’t be updated on the confirmation statement. Instead, you’ll need to tell us on new forms whenever there’s a change. Find out more.
With only a day to go until the next legislative change resulting from the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act, I thought I’d highlight an important point in relation to the people with significant control (PSC) register.
On 6 April 2016 the law changed requiring all companies to keep a PSC register and from 30 June 2016 companies will start to file this PSC information via their confirmation statements. As each company has a different filing date, based on the anniversary of their incorporation, it will take up to 12 months to develop a full picture of all UK companies’ PSCs.
When it’s your time to file, if you choose to file your confirmation statement using our WebFiling service, you’ll only be able to tell us about the current status of each of your PSC. Unfortunately, our WebFiling service currently can’t accept multiple statements in relation to a particular PSC. We are actively working on a solution to this and will update you on our progress.
For an example, in April you hadn’t identified your PSC, and you put that in your register. In June you established who they were and contacted them to confirm their details, and made a note of this in your register. And then in August you received this confirmation. In this case, when you come to file your confirmation statement via WebFiling, you’ll only be able to tell us about those PSC details, not all of those stages you entered into your own register.
If there’s been any changes to their information between April 2016 – when you first started to keep your register – and the due date of your confirmation statement, you’ll be able to show these changes by filing:
- confirmation statements online at each stage of your progress (each time selecting the appropriate statement to reflect each stage of your PSC history)
- a confirmation statement on paper, showing all historical changes in one go (although paper filing in general does take longer)
You can file as many confirmation statements as you want throughout the year (but only pay your fee once).
If you usually file using third party software, you’ll need to contact the software provider directly for advice on filing PSC information.
Each company will receive a reminder when they’re due to file and full confirmation statement guidance is now available on our site. Also, you can read my previous blog if you need more information about the PSC register and necessary requirements.
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