How Companies House Can Improve Company Search in the UK

16 Jul How Companies House Can Improve Company Search in the UK

Have you ever wondered the credibility of a person? When he or she claims to be a company’s so and so.

The Companies House Service (CHS) in the UK helps you to check all this information.

They help you with authentic search free of cost. You can look at the details and filing history of a company.

It also includes the following:

• directors’ names and service addresses
• accounts
• confirmation statement
• charges
• other business activity

In the past, the focus of the Companies House has been active in the area of transparency and ease of doing business. The company law framework was hence developed to support these primary goals.

While transparency and ease of doing business are primary, the Companies House should and also have begun to think of other equally important issues.

Like the following:

1. accuracy of the information held at Companies House
2. abuse of personal information on the register misuse of UK registered entities as vehicles for economic and other crime

3. Cyber Crimes of finance

They have already begun to work closely with law enforcement agencies and have actively sought to increase awareness on how the information in the register can assist them.

Here is a list of top four concerns of the Companies House which also affects us, the users.

1. Knowing more about the companies

Presently the Companies House accept information to the register without checking that people are who they say they are.

Most cases they check out to be genuine, but with increased cyber crimes, there are instances where criminals claim to be directors of UK companies and file false information on the register.

This causes great distress to people and provides a cover for illegal activity.

It is vital that they verify the credibility of those entering the information and

• directors
• people with significant control (PSCs)
• presenters

2. Improving the accuracy and usability of data on the register

Currently, they do not have the power to query, amend or remove information, apart from in very specific circumstances.

The need of the hour is that the Companies House expand its capability in terms of the database querying and data validation.

3. Improving the detection of possible criminal behavior

The vast majority of the companies on the Companies House register are law abiding. But there’s evidence that a small but growing number of companies are being used to launder dirty money. If nothing is done to fix this, it will only grow by numbers.

It is the need of the hour that they identify suspicious behavior on the register, and take steps to stop companies being used for illicit activity.

4. Protecting personal information

With great things come huge responsibilities. That is exactly what the Companies House is dealing at the moment. There is a huge amount of data publicly available creating many loopholes.

The information on their register is searched for more than 4 billion times each year, which is evidence of the value of transparent data.

But people are rightly concerned about identity theft and fraud. It’s time the Companies House begin to consider how they can protect the information to safeguard them from risk.