2019 Review of UK
Company Formations
669,855 new businesses were formed in the UK in 2018.
View in depth statistics on the UK as a whole or choose a county on the map.
Companies Formed in...
Frequently Asked Questions View all FAQs
What is Inform Direct and why should I use it?
Inform Direct is an online software service that allows you to manage your company statutory records simply and efficiently.
It allows you to maintain records of your company's officers, shareholders and PSCs. Any changes that require notification to Companies House are automatically submitted electronically. This includes appointment of new officers; termination of officers; change of an officer's details; adding a new PSC or removing a PSC; updating PSC details; allotment of shares and share reorganisation transactions. Inform Direct can also electronically file changes to company details (such as registered office, accounting reference date and single alternative inspection location); changes to your company name; filing of dormant company accounts and incorporation requests.
Each year your company is required to submit a confirmation statement (formerly an annual return) to Companies House. Our software makes this quick and easy by using the records you have maintained in Inform Direct to file your confirmation statement in just a few simple steps. Inform Direct also updates and maintains your statutory registers and monitors time-critical events, alerting you to take action when required.
With Inform Direct you have no need to understand which Companies House forms need to be submitted or how to fill out any of the Companies House forms currently supported. Inform Direct takes you step by step through any changes you are making to your company records and electronically submits the data to Companies House once you confirm the changes. Our clever software will also suggest documents that may be required to support your transaction. It can produce over 100 different documents, including template board minutes and resolutions, company letters, forms and certificates and these will be pre-populated with the information you entered when completing your transaction, so you won't need to enter it all again.
In addition to all of the above great features, Inform Direct offers each account:
- a secure online document storage area – your Document Library;
- a specially designed 'Your Portfolio' page that allows you to easily manage multiple companies; and
- the ability to invite other users to access your account, and to control their access rights and permissions.
Is Inform Direct authorised by Companies House?
Yes, Inform Direct is a Companies House authorised service. This authorisation enables Inform Direct to electronically exchange data direct with Companies House.
What are your terms and conditions?
You can read our full terms & conditions here Terms of Service
Which Companies House forms does Inform Direct support?
Inform Direct automatically recognises which changes you make need to be submitted to Companies House. With your approval, wherever possible it will electronically submit these changes to Companies House using the Companies House electronic interchange system. For forms where Companies House does not allow electronic filing, Inform Direct will fully pre-populate a paper form that you can post to Companies House.
Inform Direct supports each of the following forms for limited companies:
- CS01 - Confirmation Statement
- AR01 - Annual Return
- IN01 - Application to Register a Company
- NM01 - Notice of Change of Name by Resolution
- NM04 - Notice of Change of Name by means provided for in the Articles
- AA01 - Change of Accounting Reference Date
- AA02 - Dormant Company Accounts (DCA)
- AP01 - Appointment of Director
- AP02 - Appointment of Corporate Director
- AP03 - Appointment of Secretary
- AP04 - Appointment of Corporate Secretary
- CH01 - Change of Director's details
- CH02 - Change of Corporate Director's details
- CH03 - Change of Secretary's details
- CH04 - Change of Corporate Secretary's details
- TM01 - Termination of appointment of Director
- TM02 - Termination of appointment of Secretary
- AD01 - Change of Registered Office address
- AD02 - Notification of single alternative inspection location (SAIL)
- AD03 - Change of location of the company records to the SAIL
- AD04 - Change of location of the company records to the Registered Office
- SH01 - Return of Allotment of Shares
- SH02 - Notice of consolidation, sub-division, redemption of shares or re-conversion of stock into shares
- SH03 - Return of purchase of own shares
- SH04 - Notice of sale or transfer of treasury shares
- SH05 - Notice of cancellation of treasury shares
- SH06 - Notice of cancellation of shares
- SH07 - Notice of cancellation of shares held by or for a public company
- SH08 - Notice of name or other designation of class of shares
- SH10 - Notice of particulars of variation of rights attached to shares
- SH11 - Give notice of a new class of members
- SH12 - Give notice of particulars of variation of class rights
- SH13 - Give notice of name or other designation of class of members
- SH19 - Statement of capital when reducing capital in a company
- PSC01 - Give notice of individual person with significant control
- PSC02 - Give notice of relevant legal entity with significant control
- PSC03 - Give notice of other registrable person with significant control
- PSC04 - Give notice of change of details for person with significant control
- PSC05 - Give notice of change of details for relevant legal entity with significant control
- PSC06 - Give notice of change of details of other registrable person with significant control
- PSC07 - Give notice ceasing to be an individual person with significant control
- PSC08 - Give notice of PSC statements
- PSC09 - Give notice of update to PSC statements
- MR01 - Particulars of a charge (register a newly created charge)
- MR02 - Particulars of a charge subject to which property or undertaking has been acquired
- MR04 - Statement of satisfaction in full or in part of a charge
- MR05 - Statement that part or the whole of the property charged (a) has been released from the charge (b) no longer forms part of the company's property or undertaking
- DS01 - Striking off application by a company
- DS02 - Withdraw a striking off application by a company
Inform Direct supports each of the following forms for LLPs:
- LL AA01 - Change of accounting reference date of an LLP
- LL AR01 - Annual Return of an LLP
- LL AD01 - Change of registered office address of an LLP
- LL NM01 - Notice of change of name of an LLP
- LL DE01 - Notice of change of status of an LLP
- LL AD02 - Notification of Single Alternative Inspection Location (SAIL) of an LLP
- LL AD03 - Change of location of the records to the SAIL of an LLP
- LL AD04 - Change of location of the records to the registered office of an LLP
- LL AP01 - Appointment of member of an LLP
- LL AP02 - Appointment of corporate member of an LLP
- LL CH01 - Change of details of a member of an LLP
- LL CH02 - Change of details of a corporate member of an LLP
- LL TM01 - Termination of appointment of member of an LLP
- LL MR01 - Particulars of a charge created by an LLP
- LL MR02 - Particulars of a charge subject to which property or undertaking has been acquired by an LLP
- LL MR04 - Statement of satisfaction in full or in part of a charge of an LLP
- LL MR05 - Statement that part or the whole of the property charged (a) has been released from the charge (b) no longer forms part of the LLP's property
- LL DS01 - Striking off application by an LLP
- LL DS02 - Withdrawal of striking off application by an LLP
Which types of companies can use Inform Direct?
Inform Direct currently supports private companies limited by shares; public limited companies; private companies limited by guarantee; limited liability partnerships (LLPs); unlimited companies with share capital and community interest companies. It supports companies that have been incorporated in England and Wales, Wales only, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
With regards to share capital, the current version of Inform Direct supports companies that have:
- Share class currencies denominated in £ sterling, euros or US dollars.
- Share classes that are fully paid, fully unpaid or partly paid.
Future versions of Inform Direct will also support other company types including:
- Unincorporated associations
- Charitable companies
Is Inform Direct secure?
Yes. We store your data securely in a third party hosted UK data centre. Access to the data halls is restricted to employees and agents of the third party that need access to provide the data centre to us.
Any data you enter into your Inform Direct account is protected with SSL Encryption Certificates (secure socket layer technology) issued by leading certificate authority Verisign. This ensures all data you enter is encrypted when it is transmitted to the Inform Direct data centre.
If you are a subscriber you can further enhance the security of your Inform Direct account by using two-step verification. Adding a second verification step makes your account far less vulnerable to attack by a hacker. Knowing your password alone is not enough. In addition, they need access to your smartphone in order to provide the unique, randomly generated six-digit verification code.
Read more about our commitment to security.
Is Inform Direct GDPR compliant?
We have made changes to be compliant with the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR).
You can read more about what changes have been made here.
For more information about GDPR, please see the Information Commissioner’s website.
How do I get started?
Simply click here to access Inform Direct and use the simple software to manage your company statutory records or submit your Companies House confirmation statement with ease.
Inform Direct is an online service and you do not need to download any software. You can access it online 24/7 using your browser.
All you will need to get started is your Companies House authentication code. If you don't have your authentication code, it is easy to get a reminder sent out to your company's registered office address. When you start using Inform Direct and we ask for your authentication code, select the 'What's this?' link. We will ensure a reminder code is sent out to you and you should receive this at your company's registered office address within a day or two.
Can I get approval before submissions are sent to Companies House
Yes - as an Inform Direct subscriber you are able to save a process and generate documents prior to submitting to Companies House. Then following approval (from your client, or internally) you can simply pick the process back up, and submit it to Companies House.
This is currently available for:
- Confirmation statements
- Registered office address changes
- Officer appointments, terminations and changes
- PSC additions, removals and changes
- Change of a company name
- Altering accounting reference dates
- Dormant company accounts
It is being rolled out for more processes in the coming months.
Can I use two-step verification to protect the data I hold in Inform Direct?
Yes – if you are a subscriber you can use two-step verification to add an additional layer of security to your Inform Direct account.
Two-step verification requires you to provide two ways of proving your identity when you try to log in to your account. The first step of the login process requires you to enter your email address and password. The second additional step requires you to enter the verification code that you will receive from the authenticator app installed on your phone. This second step means that your account with Inform Direct is both more difficult to attack and a less attractive target, as to gain access a rogue individual would need to know not only your password but also have access to your phone.
The ability to apply two-step verification to your account is just one of a range of benefits available to users paying a subscription and is not available to users operating Inform Direct on a Pay as You Go basis.
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