Draft Protection and Disclosure of Personal Information (Amendment) Regulations 2025
(Limited Text - Ministerial Extracts only)
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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Business and Trade (Justin Madders)
I beg to move,
That the Committee has considered the draft Protection and Disclosure of Personal Information (Amendment) Regulations 2025.
It is a pleasure to see you in the Chair today, Mrs Hobhouse. The regulations are part of a secondary legislation programme implementing the reforms of the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023. Combating economic crime remains a priority for the Government. At the same time, it is crucial that we ensure that the UK lives up to its reputation as a country in which legitimate businesses can thrive. The reforms in the 2023 Act strike that balance. As the implementation of the 2023 Act continues at pace, I am pleased to present the Committee with these new regulations as part of the next wave of reforms.
As a quid pro quo for running a limited liability company, those controlling them have to register their details publicly at Companies House. That provides transparency for members of the public, so they can find out who those people are. At the same time, it means that the owners and controllers of the company can be held to account for the company’s affairs. However, the Government are conscious that by having personal information on the public companies register, individuals can be subject to increased risk of harm, including the risk of fraud and identity theft, and other matters such as stalking. The regulations aim to ensure that the register does not become a tool for abuse, and to strike the right balance between transparency and privacy.
Currently, it is possible for an individual to protect their residential address from the public register in certain limited cases. When I say protect, I mean that the register cannot display the addresses publicly. That does not mean that the address has gone away entirely; Companies House retains the address and can share it with those who have functions of a public nature, such as law enforcement, if required to do so.
The new regulations deliver another instalment of the reforms to enhance the protection of personal information on the register. They build on regulations that came into force on 27 January this year. The previous regulations expanded the circumstances in which an individual can apply to protect their residential address from the public register.
The regulations will expand that existing protection regime further still. They will allow individuals to apply to protect their business occupation, signature and date of birth. They will also make it possible to protect a residential address in even more cases than is already allowed. The only exceptions will be where it is not possible because the company names make it so, and in certain charge-related filings. That is because of the importance of those filings for due diligence purposes. The Government will keep those exceptions under review.
We believe that the reforms align with the Government’s mission to kick-start economic growth. They will encourage enterprise and entrepreneurship, giving prospective directors greater confidence that their personal information can be protected if they decide to start a company or accept an appointment as a director.
The regulations will also remove the requirement for certain community interests, company documents and statements of solvency to be signed. That means that those documents can be authenticated via printed name, bringing them in line with other company-related filings. By reducing the number of signatures on the public register, the measure will reduce misuse of the register for fraudulent purposes, including identity theft.
In addition, the regulations will remove the requirement for directors of overseas companies to provide a business occupation. As the 2023 Act will remove the requirement for UK company directors to provide their business occupation, the regulations ensure consistency with the requirements for overseas company directors.
Further, the regulations expand an existing protection mechanism for people with significant control. They can currently make an application to request that the registrar refrains from disclosing their usual residential address to a credit reference agency. The regulations allow a person with significant control over a company to make applications in more cases—for example, where they are at risk as a result of being a partner of a limited partnership. The regulations make other minor amendments to secondary legislation relating to people with significant control, which are applied to limited liability partnerships and eligible Scottish partnerships.
The regulations apply the changes that they make to company law to the law governing LLPs and unregistered companies, such as companies formed by royal charter. This will ensure that the framework for other entities aligns with that of standard companies.
I reiterate that the regulations strike the right balance between privacy and transparency. They mark a further step towards the successful implementation of the 2023 Act, and I therefore hope that the Committee will support them.
Justin Madders
I am grateful for the shadow Minister’s support. As she rightly pointed out, we can all understand why this sort of issue is important—I am sure we all have constituents who have been affected by it—and she asked a series of perfectly reasonable questions.
We do not have in mind a specific period for processing applications. It will very much depend on the level of demand and whether the information is provided in the correct manner in the first place. I understand that, because a similar process has already been set up under previous regulations for certain circumstances in which people can remove their information, the systems are in place and there are staff ready to go. The people at Companies House have assured us that they are confident they will be able to manage the demand.
There will be a fee, and I understand that it is currently £30. Of course, Companies House can recover fees only on a cost-recovery basis, so there will be no element of profit making—it will simply cover overheads. I understand that there is a wider review of Companies House fees, which will clearly be informed by the progress of the roll-out.
The application itself is straightforward. It can be done via email or on paper, and must contain the information that the applicant wishes to protect and the list of documents. There will be no need for individuals to justify why they need the information to be removed from the Companies House register. If the correct information is provided, the process will be fairly straightforward. I understand that Companies House will issue guidance shortly on how the process will work.
On the wider point about how the changes will be communicated to individuals who are on the register, I will come back to the shadow Minister if there is any further information. I will also do the same if we are able to provide estimates of how many people the changes will protect. With fraud, criminals often take information from a number of sources, so it is about limiting the scope for fraudulent activity, but if we can put a number on it, we will certainly do that. A number of actions have already been taken to prevent incorrect information from being put on the register under the new powers in the 2023 Act.
That probably covers the bulk of the shadow Minister’s questions. I will write to her with more information if I can give any more detail. A lot of this relates to the processes and the internal workings of Companies House. We have confidence that the people there will be able to deal with the change, as they have undertaken similar projects recently. I thank Members for their support for the regulations and commend them to the Committee.
Question put and agreed to.