Introduction to PSC

The requirement to keep a Register of People with Significant Control (PSC) was introduced in the United Kingdom by the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015, amending the Companies Act 2006 by inserting section 21A. From 6 April 2016, in addition to keeping a Register of Members and Directors, Companies, Societates Europaeae and Limited Liability Partnerships have the obligation to keep a Register of Individuals or Legal Entities that have significant control over them.

Additionally, eligible Scottish qualifying partnerships must equally investigate whether they have any PSCs or relevant legal entities (RLEs), and, from 24 July 2017, are required to file information on their registrable PSCs and RLEs at Companies House in accordance with Part 5 of the regulations (but are not required to keep a PSC Register per se).

The new legislation also stipulates that PSC information must equally be disclosed upon incorporating new Companies/SEs/SLPs/SPs/LLPs, within the Incorporation form.

Furthermore, from 26 June 2017, PSC information is no longer submitted through the Confirmation Statement (CS01), instead you are required to notify Companies House of any changes using forms PSC01 to PSC09 (and their LLP and SLP/SP equivalents) whenever there is a change. You have 14 days to update your Register and another 14 days to send the information to Companies House.

The requirement to maintain a PSC Register does not currently apply to other entities, such as limited partnerships (LPs) or Charitable Incorporated Organisations (CIOs), nor does it apply to the following types of UK Companies:

• Companies that are subject to Chapter 5 of the Financial Conduct Authority's Disclosure and Transparency Rules (DTRs) (with the exception of those AIM-listed Companies which must also maintain a PSC Register).
• Companies with voting shares admitted to trading on a regulated market in the UK or European Economic Area (other than the UK) or on specified markets in Switzerland, the USA, Japan and Israel (see List of Regulated Markets).