A date of birth must be provided to Companies House for all directors, persons of significant control (PSCs) and LLP members whether they join a company on incorporation or later.
In the event you identify that a date of birth is incorrectly recorded for an individual, it will need to be amended at Companies House. This article identifies the actions required to correct the date of birth depending on the way in which the individual was appointed.
As a director or PSC of a company you have a duty to ensure your information, including the date of birth, is accurate and up to date. In addition to this, Companies House makes use of the date of birth as a unique identifier to distinguish between different records, so it is important that the correct information is recorded.
The full date of birth is held on a private register of directors, register of LLP members or PSC register. On the public record it will only be the month and year which are visible. Companies House will only disclose the full date if it is required by law, such as to credit reference agencies or the police.
Companies House does not allow the date of birth to be amended using change of information forms, although changes to other personal details of officers and PSCs such as their name, residential address or nationality can be amended using electronic filings. It is easy to make these changes amongst a range of other filings using Inform Direct.
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As a result, where a date of birth is incorrect the original filing to appoint the individual will need to be corrected, sometimes using paper forms. The process to do this differs depending on the role of the individual and at which point in the history of the company the incorrect details were recorded.
The first step is to locate the form on which the date of birth was entered incorrectly. By looking through the filing history of the company you will be able to identify whether the director, PSC or LLP member in question was part of the company when it was incorporated or if they have been subsequently appointed.
In the event the date of birth is incorrectly held for an individual as a director and a PSC, separate submissions will be required to correct the records individually.
Director records:
If the error was made whilst forming the company you will require an RP08 form to remove the incorrect date of birth from the incorporation documents and an RP CH01 form to show the correct date of birth.
If the appointment was made on incorporation before 1 October 2009 there is no administrative power available to the registrar to change the information. In this situation a court order could be sought to declare the information as a nullity.
If the incorrect date of birth was recorded when appointing an officer to an existing company, you will be required to file a corrected appointment. This can be done using the RP04 form, this can either be submitted online through the Companies House Web filing portal, or by post with an AP01 form. The RP04 form indicates that you are second filing a document with inaccuracies.
If the director appointment was made before 1 October 2009 it will have been made using a 288a form. To change this information, you will need to file a corrected version of the 288a form. This should be dated the day on which it was originally filed with the word ‘Amended’ clearly written on the document and sent to Companies House.
If it was a change of information for the director which contained the incorrect date of birth before 1 October 2009, the same process would apply with a 288c form.
The date of birth was also recorded on the annual return until 2016. This was superseded by the confirmation statement, which does not include the director details. If an incorrect date of birth was recorded on the annual return, a corrected version should be filed. If it was submitted since 1 October 2009 it will be on an AR01 form (based on the date, either 01/10/2009-30/09/2011 or 01/10/2011-2016): a corrected version should be sent to Companies House with an RP04 form by post. If it was prior to October 2009 the submission will have been on a 363a form: the corrected details should be sent on this with ‘Amended’ clearly written on the top of the document
PSC records:
In the event an incorrect date of birth is recorded for a PSC on incorporation there is unfortunately no method to correct the date at Companies House. The only way in which it may be possible to remove an incorrect record is by taking the matter to court and seeking rectification under section 1096 of the Companies Act 2006. We have seen that it is instead most common in this situation to remove the PSC and add them again using the correct date of birth.
If the error was made when adding a PSC to an existing company you will first need to identify how they were notified. Persons of significant control were introduced on 6 April 2016: the individuals will have been notified on either the first confirmation statement since that date or using a PSC01 form. Whether the appointment was made via CS01 or PSC01, the correction should be made on a PSC01 form. This should be dated as per the original addition of the PSC, which is visible on the Companies House website, and sent with an RP04 form by post.
If an error was made when adding a PSC to an existing LLP, a correction should be made on a LL PSC01 form. Again, this needs to be dated at the same date as the original addition of the PSC, and submitted with an LL RP04 form by post.
LLP member records:
If an incorrect date of birth was entered for an LLP member on incorporation it possible to correct using an LL RP02a form to remove the incorrect date of birth from the incorporation documents and a form RP LL CH01 form to show the correct date of birth.
Where an incorrect date was entered when adding an LLP member the information should be corrected using an LL RP04 form and a new LL AP01 form with the correct information. These must be sent by post.
PROOF Companies
If the company is part of the Protected Online Filing Scheme (PROOF) then a PR03 form will also be required to allow the filing on paper to be processed. For LLPs it will be a form LL PR03 that is required. The PR03 & LL PR03 forms are not available online: to access these you will need to contact Companies House.
Shareholders or companies limited by guarantee members
The date of birth is not recorded for shareholders of companies limited by shares or the members of a company limited by guarantee.
Alternative options
Although correct practice is to follow the guidelines above and file amended documents to Companies House, there are circumstances in which updating the information quickly may be felt to be vital.
It is therefore common to see the removal and re-appointment or directors, PSCs and LLP members where their date of birth was previously incorrectly recorded. This does leave a record on the company’s filing history of a removal and subsequent reappointment, which is technically incorrect and therefore not recommended. However, it appears that many choose this approach because it can be completed in a day or two rather than the period of weeks it may take for paper filings to be accepted.
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