The UK’s business environment is continuing to witness the positive impact of the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 (ECCTA), with “significant progress” having been made over the last year to combat economic crime.
ECCTA received royal assent in October 2023 and grants new powers to UK authorities, particularly Companies House, to target organised criminals and those who abuse the UK’s economy.
The reforms are also designed to increase the value of the companies register to government users and those in the private sector.
In its Second Progress Report on the Implementation and Operation of Parts 1 to 3 of Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023, published on 16 June 2025, the government says that “significant progress has been made in implementing these reforms in the last twelve months”.
“This includes real world action taken against companies seeking to use the UK’s corporate framework for fraudulent purposes, work to improve the accuracy of data held by Companies House, and collaboration with other government departments and agencies to ensure that we present a unified front.
“The reforms will benefit legitimate business whilst cracking down on bad actors, and the government will continue to ensure we achieve both objectives as roll-out continues,” says the ministerial foreword in the report.
ECCTA Update
The progress report highlights developments in three key areas:
- Companies House changes.
The ECCTA gave Companies House new powers to improve transparency over UK companies. Registrars are now tasked with doing more to protect the integrity of the information on the register and seeking to prevent companies and others from carrying out unlawful activities.
The government’s report shows that 100,400 companies were impacted by registrars querying and removing false, misleading or incorrect information from the registers between 4 March 2024 and 3 March 2025.
This related to 82,600 registered office addresses, 66,900 officer addresses, 55,100 people with significant control addresses, 49,800 incorporation documents, 11,200 additional documents from the register.
As of 3 March 2025, Companies House had issued 419 penalty warning notices and 192 penalty notices further to these investigations.
Of these, 48 entities had complied, and 12 penalties have been paid. 33 companies are now proceeding to voluntary dissolution, and 78 are having their addresses changed to the default address prior to being struck off.
- Limited partnerships changes.
Under measures introduced by the ECCTA, limited partnerships will be required to submit more information which will be publicly accessible, providing greater transparency for users of the register.
These changes are coming into force in stages. Some changes are already in force, with further changes expected throughout 2025 and into 2026.
Under the new measures, limited partnerships must:
- Provide partners’ names, date of birth and usual residential address.
- Provide a registered office within the UK.
- Provide a standard industrial classification (SIC) code.
- File an annual confirmation statement.
Limited partnerships will need to file their information through an authorised agent (an ACSP) that is registered with Companies House. There will be new powers to:
- Close and restore limited partnerships.
- Apply sanctions.
- Protect partners’ information.
- Operate a statutory compliance process.
- Register of Overseas entities (ROE).
The ROE was introduced by the Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Act 2022, with further reforms introduced by the ECCTA.
Overseas entities who want to buy, sell or transfer property or land in the UK must register with Companies House and declare their registrable beneficial owners or managing officers.
As of 4 March 2025, there were 30,400 entities on the ROE.
A total of 4,800 warnings were issued to firms between July 2023 and 4 March 2025 for failure to register and a further 3,700 for failure to update.
Financial penalties for failure to register have been issued to 444 overseas entities, with 111 overseas entities receiving financial penalties in the same period for failure to update.
To read the government’s full second progress ECCTA progress report, click here.
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