Company registers: what to maintain

A UK company still needs reliable statutory and accounting records, but older lists of required registers are no longer fully accurate. The 2025–2026 reforms changed where certain officer and control information must be maintained. Use a current checklist rather than copying the contents of an old company-secretarial folder. ^[1]

Know what changed

From 18 November 2025, companies no longer have to maintain their own statutory registers of directors, directors' residential addresses, secretaries or PSCs. They must still provide the relevant information to Companies House and keep it updated. Removing a local-register requirement does not remove the reporting duty. ^[1]

Voluntary working lists may still help administrators, but label them clearly. An internal contact sheet should not be mistaken for the authoritative public record or used as a reason to postpone a filing.

Maintain the register of members

Companies must continue to hold their register of shareholders, or members, at the registered office or a single alternative inspection location. The option to hold members' information centrally at Companies House ended on 26 January 2026. Companies that used that option need to create and maintain the required full register locally. ^[1]

Check that the register reflects actual membership events and the required particulars. A capitalisation spreadsheet or a confirmation statement can help with reconciliation, but neither should casually be treated as a substitute for the statutory record.

Keep the supporting company records

Retain incorporation documents, current articles, relevant resolutions, share transaction documents and decision records. Accounting records have their own requirements, including evidence of money received and spent, assets, liabilities and transactions. ^[2]

Different records have different retention and inspection rules. Do not apply one blanket deletion date to everything, particularly where a transaction, enquiry or dispute remains unresolved.

Review a practical records inventory

• Which records must the company hold itself?
• Where are the current and historical versions stored?
• Who can update them and who approves changes?
• Which records have statutory inspection requirements?
• Which information must instead be updated at Companies House?
• What happens if the accountant or administrator changes?

Repair gaps without inventing history

If records are incomplete, reconstruct the position from reliable evidence and identify remaining uncertainty. Do not create backdated minutes or signatures to make a folder appear complete. A documented correction process is more useful than a misleading impression that every step was performed on time.

Rebuild a register previously held centrally

If members' information was previously held centrally, start by gathering the incorporation subscriber details and every subsequent membership event. Compare share allotments, transfers and the current ownership position. Downloaded public filings provide evidence, but they may not contain the complete history needed for a full members' register. Identify gaps before treating an export as the finished statutory record.

Ask an adviser to confirm the required particulars and inspection arrangements for your company. Record the location clearly and arrange access that remains available when a particular employee is absent. A document stored in somebody's personal cloud account can be accurate yet inaccessible to the company when needed. Company control of the record matters as well as its contents.

Separate statutory records from working information

A useful records inventory has distinct entries for the members' register, accounting evidence, resolutions and operational contact lists. Each entry should identify its purpose, owner, update trigger and access arrangements. Keep sensitive identity verification material outside generally accessible folders. The abolition of certain local registers is not an instruction to circulate the underlying personal information more widely.

Retain historical documents where they explain transactions or decisions. A reform changing future maintenance obligations does not mean that earlier evidence has become worthless. Before deleting an old company-secretarial folder, check whether it contains original resolutions, transfer evidence or correspondence needed to explain a current membership entry. Those documents may be difficult to reconstruct after the people involved leave.

An incomplete share history needs reconciliation

Suppose a company has an incorporation entry for 100 shares and a recent spreadsheet showing 150. Look for the intervening allotment authority, subscription evidence, filing and updated membership entries. Do not add an unexplained balancing line simply to make the totals agree. If a document is missing, record the gap and obtain advice on the appropriate reconstruction or correction.

Similarly, a shareholder's name on an old confirmation statement does not settle every disputed transfer. The underlying transaction and the company's registration process need examination. The records should preserve uncertainty until it is resolved rather than convert an assumption into an apparently historic fact.

Make records usable at the next transaction

Before investment or a sale, reconcile the register with certificates, share classes and the proposed transaction schedule. Buyers and investors need to understand both the current ownership and how it arose. A short index of the supporting documents can make the review more efficient without obscuring unresolved issues.

Read Changes of shareholders and the company register where ownership changes are involved. If you need assistance bringing company records together, Companies House filing review describes the administration work to discuss, including any historic gaps requiring separate advice.

Arrange professional review where ownership entries conflict or the effect of a historic transaction is unclear. The objective is a usable record of the company, with a clear distinction between verified facts and matters still to resolve.