Company Secretarial Support

Version 24.0 build 3388 Economic Crime and Transparency Act — Release Bulletin 01/03/2024

We've released Company Secretarial version 24.0, build 3388. This release includes the following changes to comply with the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023:
  • Confirmation of an appropriate registered office address.
  • Provision of a registered email address.
  • Provision of a statement of lawful purpose.
  • Form updates.
We've also made these changes for LLPs, where needed.

Registered office address

There's a new
Registered office is in an appropriate address
 checkbox on the
Company details
 window, after the
Registered Office
 box. Marking this checkbox will ensure that the confirmation checkbox on the Change of Address form (AD01 / LL AD01) is marked. You can also manually mark the checkbox on this form.
This confirmation is mandatory. Companies House is likely to reject the form, whether you file it online or by post. If the address is not 'appropriate', you'll need to rectify it.

Registered email address

Companies will need to provide Companies House with a registered email address. New companies will provide this to Companies House on incorporation. Existing companies will need to provide this when they file their next Confirmation Statement. At this time, you can only change a registered email address through the Companies House's update a registered email address online service. Companies House has advised that the registered email address won't be part of the public record. You'll need to contact your clients to get a suitable email address for this purpose.
There's a new
Registered email address
 box in the
Company details
 window. There are validations and warnings to remind you to check you've entered this, because you'll need to report it to Companies House.
We've also added a column to the Companies active view grid, which you can use to filter and sort by registered email. If this column is not present, you can select
Field Chooser
 from the menu bar to add it.

Changes to the Confirmation statement (CS01 / LL CS01) process

We understand that CS01 / LL CS01s prepared before upgrading, with a confirmation date before 5 March 2024, should still be able to be filed after upgrading to version 24. Unfortunately, we're unable to verify this until after the changes have gone live.
If you have issues when e-filing forms with confirmation dates before 5 March 2024 after upgrading, we suggest you use Companies House's online filing service for these.
We've added a
Registered email address
 to the
Confirmation Statement (CS01 / LL CS01) Check and Confirm
 window.
The registered email address will be shown in the Companies House column if it holds a registered email address for the company and it will be shown in the Company Secretarial column if it's included in the application.
The following are possible scenarios:
  • If Companies House doesn't hold a registered email address for the company and one has been included in Company Secretarial, then this will be included in the CS01 submission.
  • If Companies House don't hold a registered email address for the company and if one is not in Company Secretarial, then no email will be reported to Companies House. You'll get an error message alerting you that Companies House are likely to reject the submission.
  • If Companies House hold a registered email address for the company, the registered email in Company Secretarial won't be reported on the CS01. If the address at Companies House is wrong, then you'll need to update this through their online service. You won't be able to update the email address through the CS01.
The filing reports have been updated to provide the registered email address retrieved from Companies House or reported to Companies House. There's a
Registered email address
 box in the 'Information reported by Companies House' section. If a registered email address is held at Companies House, it will be displayed here. If this box is blank, then no registered email address has been provided. The final section of the filing report, 'Changes to Companies House information' also contains a 'Registered Email Address' section.

Statement of lawful purpose

We've included a
The intended future activities of the company are lawful
 checkbox on the
Add Form CS01
 window, to help you make this statement.
This statement is mandatory, so you'll need to mark the checkbox to continue. You'll get a warning message if you don't complete it. Marking this checkbox will ensure that the relevant statement is made in the CS01 submission. This is also the case for the LL CS01. The final section of the filing report, 'Changes to Companies House information' also contains a 'Lawful purpose affirmation' section.

Form updates

We've included updated forms. Where there have been minor changes and Companies House have confirmed they'll accept the previous version of the form, we've not updated these forms.

Download

Go to the Product downloads page to download Company Secretarial version 24.0, build 3388.

Apply the update

You can read our installation guides for help with installing the update.
Always use the Digita Database Backup tool to back up your database before you apply an update.
  • For standalone installations: download and apply the update on the workstation where Company Secretarial is installed.
  • For network server and peer-to-peer installations: download and apply the update on the workstation acting as the server. Once the server has been upgraded, the
    Auto-node update
     process will apply the update to each workstation (node) the next time the user signs in to the application.
To verify that the update has taken effect, sign in to Company Secretarial and select
Help
, then
About Digita Company Secretarial
. The window should show version 24.0, build 3388.

Digita Virtual Office

The release for Digita Virtual Office (DVO) is planned for the weekend of 2nd to 3rd March 2024. We'll send a separate email to DVO users to give details of the upgrade.

This article applies to:

  • Product: Digita Company Secretarial

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