Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023

The long-awaited Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 (the Act) received royal assent on 26 October 2023. The Act introduces wide-ranging reforms to combat economic crime and to prevent the abuse of corporate structures.

The new legislation generally applies to all entities registered with Companies House (including private and public limited companies, LLPs, limited partnerships, community interest companies and overseas companies). It also imposes new responsibilities for:

• all new and existing company directors;
• people with significant control of a company (PSCs); and 
• anyone who files information at Companies House on behalf of a company.

Although many of the Act’s provisions are now in force, some central elements of the reforms, such as mandatory identity verification, are still to be implemented. However, the Government has now confirmed that from 18 November 2025, identity verification will be a compulsory part of incorporations and will be compulsory for the appointment of new directors and PSCs post-incorporation. The 12 months transition period for existing directors and PSCs to verify their identity will also begin at the same time. (Voluntary identification for individuals became available from 8 April 2025.)

Also in relation to identity verification, the Government’s outline transition plan indicates that “by spring 2026”, new filing restrictions will be implemented that will require a person filing a document at Companies House to either be registered as an Authorised Corporate Service Provider (ACSP) or to have completed identity verification.

Major changes to the company registers that companies are required to maintain are due to be implemented from 18 November 2025.

The Act’s provisions relating to how companies report information and what information they report when filing annual accounts, have yet to be implemented. However, Companies House has announced that from 1 April 2027:

• all accounts must be filed using commercial software;
• the accounts filing options for small and micro-entity companies will be streamlined;
• any company claiming an audit exemption will need to give an enhanced statement from their directors on the balance sheet; and
• the number of times a company can shorten its accounting reference period will be limited.

An implementation date for the prohibition on corporate directors has yet to be published.

Click on the links to the sub-pages to find out more about how the Act will affect companies and associated individuals.