Companies House: Filing of Annual Accounts by Small Companies

Lord Sharpe of Epsom Excerpts

Tuesday 8th July 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Leong (Lab)]

The noble Baroness has obviously read various newspaper reports. I suggest to her, “Don’t believe everything you read from the papers”. As it stands now, most companies have to file abbreviated accounts, which, as the noble Baroness will know, is just a balance sheet. We are asking under this Act for them to file accounts. As I said earlier, we recognise the concerns raised by various stakeholders and we will set up next steps to address those recent concerns. When this happens, a statutory instrument will be placed and noble Lords can debate it.

[Lord Sharpe of Epsom (Con)]

My Lords, obviously, we welcome sensible steps to reduce unnecessary burdens on small business, but, given the alleged decision to reverse the reforms to small business account filing, have His Majesty’s Government done the necessary work to ensure that reduced financial transparency does not damage creditor confidence, does not hinder investor due diligence and does not restrict access to finance for small companies?

[Lord Leong (Lab)]

The noble Lord is absolutely right. It is important that people must be able to rely on the data that is on file with Companies House, whether they are doing business with a particular company or to determine whether the company’s financial statements are accurate. Most companies file their accounts on time and accurately. A small minority of companies do not file their accounts on time or, perhaps, properly. This Act hopefully will go after those small companies. We are not imposing burdens on small businesses. We just want to tackle economic crime.