At the moment, directors and company secretaries must add their residential addresses to the company register and must also give their home addresses to Companies House. In both instances, the addresses are in the public domain. As from 1 October, all directors will still be required to provide their companies with a residential address, but this will not appear in the company register, only in a separate, protected register. The only address directors will need to make public is their service address, probably the company's registered office. Company secretaries will only need to supply their companies with a service address.

Companies House will still want to know the residential addresses of any directors, but will make sure they don't get added to a publicly available register. What about the directors of existing companies? The residential addresses of directors of existing companies will remain on public record. But, after 1 October, those directors can apply to prevent their residential addresses from being made publicly available.

Other Changes

Keeping Company Records

Every company will be able to keep key records at their registered address or at a single alternative inspection location (SAIL) address. Businesses must notify Companies House of the SAIL address and the records that are kept there.

Inspection of Company Records

Anyone who wishes to look at a private company's records will need to give advance notice of the date and time at which they want to carry out the inspection. A company will have to provide copies of records in the format requested by the person.

Companies House Forms

As from 1 October, Companies House forms change, and the new forms must be used for all company events. Events that take place before 1st October need to be filed on forms for the 1985 Act.

All UK limited companies whether trading or not are required to file documents at Companies House whenever there is a change to the limited company such as a new director, secretary or change of registered office. They are also required to complete and file an Annual Return Form

AR01 (form 363 before October 2009) each year which lists the current Director(s) and Shareholder(s) details. Annual Accounts Form AA01 (Dormant Companies AA02) are also normally filed each year, 6 or 9 months after the company's year end date, dependant on company size and other restrictions.
 
These original filed Companies House Documents are instantly available to download through a live feed from Companies House; these are available 7 days a week 24 Hours. Documents filed before 1995 may not be available.