As BEIS proposes changes to the powers of Companies House, and company filing requirements, Bates Wells asks: are the needs of small and medium sized charitable companies being taken into account?
The government has proposed a wide range of reforms to Companies House procedures – and opened three consultations on aspects of the reforms in December 2020. We’ve been considering what impact the proposals could have on charities and CICs, and have responded to two of the consultations.
Overall, we are concerned that some of the proposals may mean undue bureaucracy – and more expense – for companies in the charity and community sector. This will affect existing companies – and may also deter new charities from using the company limited by guarantee as their legal vehicle, which would be a retrograde step – we think that it’s very important that the company limited by guarantee should remain an option for charities.
In our responses, we urge Government to work with the Charity Commission and the Office of the Regulator of Community Interest Companies to ensure that any changes do not impose a disproportionate burden on the charity and community sector.
Click here to read our response to Corporate Transparency and Register Reform: Powers of the Registrar, and click here for our response to Corporate Transparency and Register Reform: Improving the quality and value of financial information on the UK companies register.