Companies House is the registrar of companies incorporated in England & Wales and Scotland. Company registration matters are dealt with in UK law by the Companies Act 1985 and the subsequent updated legislation contained in the Companies Act 1989. The Companies Act 2006 is changing the law for companies. These changes affect every company operating in the United Kingdom. Passed in 2006, the Act reaches the final stage of implementation on 1st October 2009.

Size of the Companies House Register

There are more than 2 million companies registered in Great Britain with over 300,000 new companies incorporated each year. The Companies House statistics are available online, for example 26,782 new companies were incorporated in August 2009.

Company Information

The Freedom of Information Act 2000 and the Data protection Act 1998 give people the right to see or receive information.

The Freedom of Information Act gives the public the right to see official information held by public authorities and includes information held by Companies House. The Freedom of Information Act came into force in 2005. It’s aim was to provide open up the information held by government departments and other public sector agencies. Companies House is an Executive Agency of The Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) and is therefore included within the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act.

The Data Protection Act allows a member of the public to see the personal information that is held about them by organisations of all types, including Companies House. Organisations, including Companies House, that hold personal information are responsible for ensuring that the information is used fairly, is kept secure, is accurate and is up to date.

Companies House are therefore required to provide access to information. A request for information can be made on a formal basis. However, Companies House also provide a number of channels and subscription based servcies that provide easy access to company information. These include an online gateway and a XML gateway.

Quality of Information

Companies House is an information registry, it therefore relies that the information provided to it is accurate. Companies House limited it’s responsibility on the accuracy of information provided by stating:

Companies House is a registry of corporate information. We carry out basic checks to make sure that documents have been fully completed and signed, but we do not have the statutory power or capability to verify the accuracy of the information that corporate entities send to us. We accept all information that such entities deliver to us in good faith and place it on the public record. The fact that the information has been placed on the public record should not be taken to indicate that Companies House has verified or validated it in any way. (Companies House, September, 2009)

The function of Companies House is to receive, store and disseminate information from limited companies and certain other bodies.

If that information is known to be inaccurate, Companies House should be informed. Further information on reporting incorrect details and fraud to companies house an be found on the Reporting Fraud pages of the Companies House website.

Copyright

Companies House website advised the following (Companies House, September, 2009).

Copyright is usually owned by the person or organisation that created the work.  In the case of copyright works produced by civil servants, the copyright is owned by the Crown and qualifies for Crown copyright protection under section 163 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Government departments do not own copyright in their own right.

The material published by Companies House may be broadly split into two categories:

a) Material produced by Companies House
Material of this sort (e.g. guidance booklets) is subject to Crown copyright protection, and Companies House controls this copyright under a Delegation of Authority from the Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office (HMSO).  Crown copyright also covers database rights, logos and visual images.  Any Crown copyright protected material held by Companies House (other than the Royal Arms and departmental or agency logos) may be reproduced free of charge in any format or medium provided it is reproduced accurately and not used in a misleading context. Where any of the Crown copyright items are being republished or copied to others, the source of the material must be identified and the copyright status acknowledged.  If Crown copyright is infringed, Companies House is authorised by the Controller of HMSO to take such lawful steps as may be required to rectify the situation.

b) Material on the public register
With the exception of a small category of material which is exempt from statutory disclosure requirements, the Registrar is required by law to make the information comprised in documents sent to him available for public inspection.  Information on the public register is made available by virtue of approvals issued by the Registrar in accordance with section 47 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and Schedule 1 of the Database Regulations (SI 1997/3032).  Companies House imposes no rules or requirements on how the information on the public register is used.

The Companies House copyright policy.

Re-use of Company Information

Companies House (Companies House, September, 2009) also advise that as a public information provider, it makes all information relating to limited companies available for public inspection.  It places no restriction on how the information is used after purchase other than the following:

• Customers must take their own legal advice regarding possible breach of third party copyright.
• Products sold in a bulk format or on CD/DVD-ROM may not be reproduced by the customer in the exact format in which it is presented.
• Customers cannot reproduce the Crown insignia or use the Companies House logo.
• If information is used from guidance notes, the website, publications or statistical tables the customer is required to credit Companies House as the source of the information.

A European Commission investigation has revealed that more than half of websites selling electronic goods ere breaking European laws aimed at protecting consumers [BBC, Websites "breaking consumer laws", September 2009].

Although I intend to look into that article further, it did get me thinking. In the United Kingdom, what is the basic level of information that a company is required to include on its website? This will help to serve as a useful reminder since the revised verrsion of the Companies Act comes into full effect in October 2009.

The Companies Act 1985 was revised in 2006 [Office of Public Sector Information (OPSI) Companies Act 2006] with some of the changes coming into effect in 2007 with full implementation in October 2009. New requirements were specifically introduced for electronic documentation, including e-mail and websites.

From January 2007, Companies are required to include the following in electronic documentation:

• company name;
• company registration number; and
• registered office.

The company name must end in an appropriate suffix – for example, “Ltd.” or “Limited”. If the name the business trades under is different in any way from the name of the company as shown on its certificate of incorporation, then the full name, including “Limited” etc. must also be shown.

The registered office must be identifed as the registered office. The important part to displaying the address of a business is that the registered office must be clearly identified and differentiated against any other trading addresses.

The area of registration must also be identified – for example, in “England & Wales” or “Scotland”.

In general it is good practice for all businesses (sole trader, partnerships, etc.) to provide contact details on any website they operate. Partnerships and Limited partnerships should also give the details of partners – noting that this information is also available from public registries.

It is also good practice for a web site to clearly display the name of the company that will be performing any business transactions and to show any appropriate registrations – including VAT registration even if the website or business does not perform online sales.

Further information & publications about the Companies Act 2006 can be found on the Companies House website [Companies Act Publications, Companies House, September 2009].