Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to improve the scrutiny of company formations, in the light of reports of UK-registered companies being used to operate international scams.
When a company incorporates with Companies House, information is required about the company’s type, its name and registered office, its directors and shareholders, its share structure and, under measures that came into force in June this year, its beneficial owners – the people with significant influence and control over it. Copies of the company’s governing documents are also required.
A number of checks are undertaken to ensure this information is complete, formatted correctly and that it meets the requirements of the Companies Act 2006. If these requirements are not met, the application will be rejected and the company will not be incorporated.
Incorporation allows the company to take actions such as opening a bank account in its own name. But when it first seeks to do this, the company and the relevant officers of the company will be subject to due diligence processes by the bank or other relevant obliged entities with which it is entering into a business relationship. UK companies are subject to customer due diligence many times throughout their lifetime.