Driven by the high number of directors falling victim to identity theft, new laws are set to make it easier for company executives to remove personal addresses from the public register. But Companies House is keen to stress that maintaining a degree of transparency remains a priority.
The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, or BEIS, in a press release announcing the new regulations pointed to the use of publicly available information by fraudsters in order to pose as company directors. This has led to further concerns that the availability of information is leaving company directors open to violence and intimidation. Research by Cifas, a fraud prevention organisation, revealed that directors are victims of one in five cases of identity fraud.
Information on Companies House became freely available to the public in June 2015 and since then directors have expressed concerns at not being able to suppress their personal information, despite it putting them at serious risk of violence or intimidation.
Current position
Before 1 October 2009 the residential address of a company director was publicly available on the register of companies, unless a confidentiality order had been granted. New laws introduced on that date gave directors the ability to file a service address and keep their residential address off the public register.
Existing regulations help directors whose residential address remains public – because the information was filed before 1 October 2009 or because the director chose not to provide a service address. These directors can apply to make their residential address unavailable for public inspection by making an application to Companies House where there is a serious risk that they, or a person living with them, will be subject to violence or intimidation as a result of the activities of a company with which they are involved.
However, applications cannot be made for the removal of any information filed before 1 January 2003 and the current regime does not allow individuals at risk of identity theft or fraud to have their residential address removed from the register. The new laws will address this and should make anybody setting up a new business feel more comfortable that their data will be better protected.
