UK legislation states that every company must publish the following information on its business letters, order forms and website:
– the part of the United Kingdom in which the company is registered;
– the company’s registered number;
– the address of the company’s registered office.
Notes
1 – The relevant legislation is:
The Company, Limited Liability Partnership and Business (Names and Trading Disclosures) Regulations 2015 (UK Statutory Instruments 2015 No. 17)
2 – The part of the UK must be one of the following:
England and Wales;
Northern Ireland;
Scotland;
Wales (for a Welsh company, designated ‘Cyfyngedig’ or ‘Cyf’ rather than ‘Limited’ or ‘Ltd’).
3 – A private company limited by guarantee can apply to be exempt from including ‘Limited’, ‘Ltd’, ‘Cyfyngedig’ or ‘Cyf’ in its name if it complies with certain criteria. It must, however, make clear on its business letters, order forms and website that it is a limited company.
4 – The registered office address must be one at which the company will receive official communications, notices and reminders relating to the company, sent by government bodies, such as Companies House and HMRC.
The address must be a physical address in the UK and in the same country that the company is registered in.
Since March 2024, a PO Box can no longer be used as a registered office address, after the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 required the Registrar of Companies to tighten up its procedures (see also Improving the quality of data on our registers).
5 – The address of the registered office will be available on the Companies House register.
Anyone running a company from home who does not want their address known to the public can use a different address, such as that of an accountant, solicitor or agent. Permission must be obtained for any such address to be used and the address concerned must be in place before the company is incorporated.
Note that a registered office address cannot be removed from a company’s record after incorporation.
