Companies House: the requirement to provide a registered email address

Section 29 of The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act came into effect on 4 March 2024, introducing a new requirement for all companies to maintain a registered appropriate email address at Companies House.

This requirement will allow Companies House to provide updates, notices and reminders via email. Companies House will use the email address to communicate directly with the company, in addition to posting hard copy documents to the registered office address (unless the company opts into digital reminders only). The email address will be held privately by Companies House and will not be made available for public inspection.

An email address is considered “appropriate” where emails received from Companies House would be expected to come to the attention of the person acting on behalf of the company. All companies must maintain an appropriate email address in the same way as its registered office address. If a company fails to maintain a registered email address without reasonable excuse, the company and its officers will be committing an offence punishable by fine. It is, therefore, crucial that the email address supplied is a real and functioning email address which is regularly monitored and one where the relevant person can take necessary action.

Newly incorporated companies will now need to provide a registered email address when they incorporate. Existing companies will need to provide a registered email address when it files its next confirmation statement with a statement date of 4 March 2024 onwards. Subsequent changes to a company’s registered email address can be made in a similar way to changes to its registered postal address i.e. via paper filing or Companies House WebFiling.