In this edition:
Companies House
On 5 February 2025, Companies House published three sets of Registrar’s Rules governing identity verification and applying to become an Authorised Corporate Services Provider. These rules are:
- The Registrar’s (Identity Verification by the Registrar) Rules 2025 – apply to applications for identity verification delivered to the Registrar on or after 25 February 2025 and set out the evidence required to support an application.
- The Registrar’s (Identity Verification by Authorised Corporate Services Providers) Rules 2025 – apply to requests for identity verification delivered to Authorised Corporate Services Providers on or after 25 February 2025 and set out the information and evidence required to support an application.
- The Registrar’s (Requests Applicable to Applications to Become an Authorised Corporate Services Provider) Rules 2025 – these apply to every application to become an Authorised Corporate Services Provider delivered to the Registrar on or after 25 February 2025.
You can verify your identity via Companies House on a voluntary basis from 25 March 2025 to meet the requirements of the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act.
An individual can voluntarily carry out their own identity verification from 25 March 2025. All individuals involved in forming and managing a company will be required to verify their identity, this includes directors, persons with significant control and anyone else making filings at Companies House (such as Company Secretaries, lawyers and company secretarial service providers).
There are three ways that you can complete your identity verification now, by using either the Gov/UK Login ID check app, the Gov.uk One Login Web Service or the Gov.uk One Login Face to Face service.
Here are the documents you will need. Applicants must not provide expired evidence, unless permitted in the options below:
Using the GOV.UK One Login ID Check app
- Passport with a biometric chip, not expired
- UK photocard driving licence, full or provisional
- UK biometric residence permit, up to 18 months expired
- UK biometric residence card
- UK Frontier Worker permit
Using the GOV.UK One Login web service
- UK passport, up to 6 months expired
- UK photocard driving licence, full or provisional
- UK bank account supported by a UK National Insurance Number
Using the GOV.UK One Login face-to-face service
- Passport with a biometric chip, up to 18 months expired
- Passport without biometric chip, supported countries only, up to 18 months expired
- UK and EU photocard driving licence, full or provisional
- UK biometric residence permit, up to 18 months expired
- National identity photocard from an EEA country, standardised chipped biometric cards only
Individuals will also be able to verify their identity through Authorised Corporate Services Providers (ACSP), it was originally planned that companies could register as an ACSP from 25 February 2025. However, this has been delayed and a new date has yet to be confirmed, Companies House has indicated that it will be sometime during the Spring of 2025.
Gender Diversity in AIM Company Boards
On 11 February 2025, Indigo: Independent Governance and Addidat published their joint report on Gender Diversity in AIM Company Boards.
This is the third Indigo report on this topic and indicates that progress on gender diversity in AIM companies has largely stalled, with the proportion of women directors across the AIM market still at 1 in 6 appointments. The 2025 data also shows that there are 72% of AIM companies that do not have women in the more influential roles of chair, senior independent director, chief executive officer or chief finance officer and the proportion of all-male boards has increased slightly to 38% from 37% in the prior year’s report.
The report suggests that the lack of formal targets and the flexible approach to board diversity set out in the QCA Corporate Governance Code are likely to be contributing to the pace of change in AIM companies and that the report is designed to prompt thoughtful debate, meaningful action and positive change in smaller listed companies.
PLSA Stewardship and Voting Guidelines
The PLSA has published its 2025 Stewardship and Voting Guidelines and these consider:
- Recent political and economic events that have a direct impact on stewardship issues for investors.
- The impact on shareholder rights caused by changes to the UK Listing Rules and AI developments.
- Sustainable finance developments, including the new government’s focus on this area, and the PLSA’s efforts to increase the focus on considering nature as part of good company practice.
- Social factor developments, including the DWP Taskforce on Social Factors and the PLSA’s social factor case studies.
- Workforce developments, including issues such as maternity and paternity pay and leave policies, and ethnicity and disability pay reporting.
The full guidelines are only available to PLSA members on their website.
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