Why a company might be a director
Corporate directors are most common in groups, where a parent company sits on a subsidiary’s board, and where a professional firm provides directors to client companies. A company can’t be your only director: “A company must have at least one director who is a natural person”1.
What Companies House records
For a corporate director or secretary, Companies House needs the company’s name and registered or principal office, and where it is registered and its registration number (for a UK company, Companies House and its company number). There’s no date of birth, nationality or home address.
| Change | Person | Company |
|---|---|---|
| Director appointed | AP01 | AP02 |
| Director’s details change | CH01 | CH02 |
| Secretary appointed | AP03 | AP04 |
| Secretary’s details change | CH03 | CH04 |
| Director leaves | TM01 | TM01 |
| Secretary leaves | TM02 | TM02 |
The deadline is the same 14 days for all of them5.
Check your company’s dates and set a reminder
Search the Companies House register. Your company page shows its filing dates, what to file next and a reminder you can set.
What is changing
The law already contains a rule that every director must be a natural person. Section 156A says a person may not be appointed a director unless they are a natural person, with an appointment in breach void2. But it is in force only “for specified purposes” so far2, and the ban on corporate directors hasn’t started.
Companies House’s published plan says that once the restrictions start3:
- any corporate director must have an all-natural-person board;
- all the directors of the corporate director must verify their identity before the corporate director can be registered;
- only UK corporate entities with legal personality can act as corporate directors, and overseas companies can’t.
Companies House’s identity verification guidance also lists corporate directors among the roles it will bring in “at a later date”4. There is no commencement date yet, so corporate appointments filed now are accepted on today’s rules. If your company relies on a corporate director, plan for the change: check whether the corporate director is UK-registered and whether its own directors are all people.
Secretaries
Private companies don’t need a secretary at all; if yours has one, it can be a company. Read company secretaries for the rest of the rules.
Filing a corporate appointment
Fileyear’s director appointment has a box for a director that is a company. Tick it and Fileyear asks for the company’s name, registered office and registration details, and files form AP02 instead of AP01.