A confirmation statement is the annual data-refresh filing that every UK company must deliver to Companies House under section 853A of the Companies Act 2006. It confirms (or updates) the snapshot of the company that the public register holds at the date of the filing: registered office, directors, persons with significant control (PSCs), share capital and shareholders, principal business activities (SIC codes). Since the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 (ECCTA 2023), it has acquired four new operational elements: the registered email address, the appropriate-address rule for the registered office, the lawful purposes statement, and (from 18 November 2025 for newly appointed roles, with a twelve-month transition window for existing roles ending around November 2026) a verified personal code for every director and every PSC.
This page is the definitional pillar. It sets out what a confirmation statement is, what it contains, when it is due, what it costs, what the penalties are for missing it, and what the four ECCTA-era additions mean operationally. For the change-by-change deep-dive on the 2024-2026 changes, see our 2024-onwards confirmation statement changes page.
What a Confirmation Statement Is, In One Paragraph
Companies Act 2006 s.853A creates the duty: every UK company must deliver a confirmation statement to the Registrar in respect of each review period. The review period under s.853B is twelve months long, running from the day after the previous confirmation statement filing (or, for newly incorporated companies, from the day after incorporation). At least one confirmation statement must be filed per review period, within 14 days of the period end. The filing certifies that the data on the public register is correct (or, where data has changed, updates it).
The filing is short and procedural by design. For most established UK companies, the data on the register is settled and the confirmation statement is a tick-box review-and-confirm exercise; for companies that have had directorship, PSC, or share-capital changes during the year, those changes can either be filed separately during the year or wrapped into the confirmation statement. The annual cycle is uneventful when run smoothly.
What the Confirmation Statement Contains
Five long-standing elements, plus two new ECCTA-era additions, plus (from 18 November 2025) the personal-code requirement layered onto the directors and PSCs sections.
| Element | Pre-ECCTA position | Current position (post-ECCTA 2023) |
|---|---|---|
| Registered office | Any UK address valid for service | Appropriate address capable of acknowledging service (Companies Act 2006 inserted appropriate-address rule under ECCTA ss.28-30, effective 4 March 2024); PO boxes generally do not qualify |
| Directors | Full name, service address, date of birth (last two digits redacted on public register), nationality, occupation, country of residence | Same plus verified personal code under ECCTA s.68 once in scope of the identity-verification regime |
| Persons with significant control (PSCs) | Identity plus nature of control (25% or more of shares or voting or appointment rights or significant influence); disclosed but not verified | Same plus verified personal code once in scope (ECCTA s.64) |
| Share capital and shareholders | Statement of capital plus members register snapshot for share-issuing companies | Same (no substantive change) |
| SIC codes for principal business activities | Up to four 5-digit codes from SIC 2007 | Same (no substantive change) |
| Registered email address | Not required | Required (Companies Act 2006 inserted-s.88A under ECCTA ss.28-30, effective 4 March 2024 for new companies; at next confirmation statement for existing companies); Companies-House-to-company correspondence channel, not published |
| Lawful purposes statement | Not required | Annual positive declaration that intended future activities are lawful (ECCTA ss.59-63, effective 5 March 2024) |
The substantive content remains compact. For a typical small landlord LtdCo SPV the entire confirmation statement is a single screen of confirmation plus the four post-ECCTA elements. For more complex companies (multiple share classes, multiple directors, multiple PSCs, multi-jurisdictional shareholders), the filing has more data points but the architecture is identical.
When the Confirmation Statement Is Due
Each UK company has a review period of twelve months under Companies Act 2006 s.853B. The review period runs from the day after the previous confirmation statement filing (or, for newly incorporated companies, from the day after incorporation). The confirmation statement must be filed within 14 days of the end of the review period under s.853A.
Operational example. Khan Properties Ltd was incorporated on 15 April 2020. Its first review period ran from 16 April 2020 to 15 April 2021, with the confirmation statement due between 16 April 2021 and 29 April 2021 (a 14-day filing window). Each subsequent review period runs from 16 April to 15 April annually, with the same 14-day filing window each spring. Once a company is filing on a settled annual rhythm, the date stays constant from year to year.
Companies House sends reminders ahead of the deadline, typically by post to the registered office and by email to the registered email address. The filing obligation, however, is on the company; the absence of a reminder does not excuse non-filing. Practitioner workflows usually anchor the filing date in the accountant's calendar alongside the annual accounts and corporation tax return cycle.
What Changed Under ECCTA 2023
Four operational additions to the confirmation statement, sequenced by commencement date.
| In-force date | Change | Statutory anchor | Operational consequence |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 March 2024 | Registered email address required | ECCTA ss.28-30 (Companies Act 2006 inserted-s.88A) | New companies provide at incorporation; existing companies provide at next confirmation statement |
| 4 March 2024 | Appropriate-address rule for registered office | ECCTA ss.28-30 | PO-box-only addresses generally do not qualify; reroute required where the existing office fails the test |
| 5 March 2024 | Lawful purposes statement | ECCTA ss.59-63 | Positive annual declaration that intended future activities are lawful; tick-box on online filing; evidentiary artefact for later fraud or false-statement proceedings if relevant |
| 18 November 2025 | Verified personal code at filing for new directors and PSCs | ECCTA ss.40-45 plus ss.64, 65 and 68 | New appointments cannot record without a verified personal code; twelve-month transition window opens for existing directors and PSCs, ending around November 2026 |
The four changes layer onto the existing confirmation-statement architecture rather than replacing it. The s.853A obligation, the s.853B review period, the existing content elements (registered office, directors, PSCs, share capital, SIC codes) all remain in place; the ECCTA-era additions sit alongside them. For the change-by-change operational walkthrough, see our 2024-onwards changes deep-dive; for the identity-verification thread that is the most operationally significant of the four, see our complete guide to identity verification in the UK, our commencement-day deep-dive, and our operational walkthrough for landlord LtdCos.
How Much Does It Cost to File?
The current fee schedule from 1 May 2024 is £50 for an online filing or £110 for a paper filing. Verify the current figures against the Companies House published fee schedule at the moment of filing, as the schedule is set by Statutory Instrument and is subject to revision. Online filing is via the Companies House WebFiling portal or the Find and update company information service; paper filing is via form CS01. The online route is overwhelmingly the operational default; the paper route is reserved for unusual cases.
For a multi-SPV landlord portfolio, the fee compounds per SPV. A five-SPV portfolio pays £250 a year in confirmation statement fees online; a ten-SPV portfolio pays £500. The fee is independent of the company's size or activity level; a dormant SPV pays the same £50 as a fully trading SPV.
What Happens If You Miss the Deadline?
Failure to file the confirmation statement on time is a criminal offence under Companies Act 2006 s.853L. The default fine is up to level 5 on the standard scale for England and Wales (the precise figure is set by reference and should be verified at the moment of relying on it) plus a daily default fine that runs for as long as the failure continues.
Separately, the civil financial penalty regime under Schedule 1B Companies Act 2006 (inserted by ECCTA) allows Companies House to impose a civil financial penalty for relevant filing failures, up to £5,000 per failure (verify the current cap at write). The Sch 1B regime is administered by Companies House without requiring criminal proceedings; the offence under s.853L remains in place alongside it.
Cumulative non-compliance can escalate to strike-off proceedings under Companies Act 2006 ss.1000 to 1011. The strike-off track is the most consequential: a dissolved company loses legal existence; its assets vest in the Crown bona vacantia; refinancing, sale, and ongoing trading become impossible. Director disqualification proceedings under the Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986 sit further out as the long-tail consequence of persistent non-compliance across multiple companies.
Operationally, the cost of compliance (£50 a year) is trivial compared with the cost of non-compliance. For landlord LtdCos with active lender relationships, even a single late filing shows up on the public file and influences underwriting at the next refinance. The penalty calculus invariably favours timely filing.
How It Interacts With Other Annual Filings
The confirmation statement is one of three core annual filings for a UK company.
Annual accounts under Companies Act 2006 Part 15 must be filed nine months after the accounting reference date for private companies (first accounts are due within 21 months from incorporation). Annual accounts show financial state: balance sheet, profit and loss (for most small companies, abridged), notes, directors' report where applicable.
Confirmation statement under s.853A is due within 14 days of the end of the twelve-month review period. It shows register state: who is on the register, in what role, at what address, with what activity.
Corporation tax return (CT600) under Finance Act 1998 Sch 18 must be filed within twelve months of the accounting period end. The CT600 plus computations plus accounts go to HMRC; the corporation tax payment is due nine months and one day after the accounting period end (earlier than the filing deadline for the return itself).
The three filings are independent in deadline but operationally linked. The confirmation statement keeps the register snapshot current; the accounts reflect financial state; the CT600 reflects tax computation. Most landlord LtdCo operators calendar all three around a single annual cycle, anchored to the accounting reference date, with the confirmation statement and the corporation tax return aligned wherever the company elects to align them.
Can the Confirmation Statement Contain Changes?
Yes. The filing can be either a pure confirmation (the data on the register is correct at this date, nothing has changed) or it can carry changes to most data elements: appointments and resignations of directors, changes of PSC, change of registered office, change of SIC codes, statement of capital changes, and so on.
Some changes require separate filings outside the confirmation statement workflow. Company name change is the cleanest example: it goes via a separate name-change procedure with its own fee. Cross-jurisdiction registered-office changes (within the UK) also follow a separate workflow.
The cleaner operational pattern is to keep the register snapshot continuously current through interim filings: TM01 for terminating a director appointment within 14 days, AP01 for appointing a new director, PSC01 or PSC09 for PSC changes within 14 days, AD01 for change of registered office. The confirmation statement then confirms the existing register entries rather than discovering changes at the annual filing point. Discovery-at-confirmation is workable but tends to be less clean than a continuously-current register.
The Personal Code Requirement at Filing
From 18 November 2025 for newly appointed roles, and by the next confirmation statement within the twelve-month transition window for existing roles, every in-scope director and every in-scope PSC must quote their Companies House personal code under ECCTA s.68 on the confirmation statement filing.
The personal code is per natural person, not per company. One verification under ECCTA s.65 (via GOV.UK One Login free self-service, or via an Authorised Corporate Service Provider under ECCTA s.66) produces one personal code that covers every directorship and PSC role the natural person holds across every UK company. The filing portal prompts for the code at the point of filing; missing codes block the filing.
The practical operational pattern is to verify all the natural persons across the portfolio in a single Q1 batch (December 2025 or January 2026) and slot the personal codes into the confirmation statement calendar as the SPV dates fall through the year. Verification near the transition-window close in late 2026 risks document-check queues and ACSP capacity constraints; verification early in the window avoids both. For the deep-dive see our commencement-day page and our ECCTA operational walkthrough for landlord LtdCos.
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The Lawful Purposes Statement
The lawful purposes statement under ECCTA ss.59-63, effective 5 March 2024, requires the confirmation statement to include a positive declaration that the company's intended future activities are lawful. On the online filing, the declaration is a tick-box; the substantive function is more interesting than the mechanic suggests.
For an honestly run company, the declaration is uneventful. The directors confirm what is true; the filing proceeds. For a company being used as a vehicle for fraud or money laundering, the declaration creates an annual documented attestation, signed off by directors, that can support false-statement proceedings under the existing Companies Act false-statement framework if a subsequent investigation discovers unlawful activity. The pre-ECCTA confirmation statement created no such record.
Companies cannot meaningfully qualify the attestation. The declaration is binary: intended future activities are lawful or they are not. Where directors are uncertain about a marginal activity, the answer is usually to take advice on the activity and confirm its lawful status before making the attestation, rather than attempting to qualify the statement at the point of filing.
The Registered Email Address
Every UK company must designate a registered email address under Companies Act 2006 inserted-s.88A (under ECCTA ss.28-30, effective 4 March 2024). The email is a Companies-House-to-company correspondence channel; it is not published on the public register, and counterparties or members of the public cannot see it.
Common operational patterns for a landlord LtdCo portfolio: use the accountant's monitored mailbox (consistent with the registered-office arrangement where the accountant provides company-secretarial services); use a director's dedicated business email; use a shared admin mailbox for the family-investment group where appropriate. What matters operationally is that the address is active and monitored: if Companies House correspondence bounces, the company is in default of its registered-email obligation, which is itself an offence.
For SPVs that pre-date 4 March 2024, the registered email should have been provided at the first confirmation statement filed on or after that date. SPVs that have not yet provided one are currently in default; the remediation is to provide one at the next available filing.
The Appropriate-Address Rule for Registered Office
Under the appropriate-address rule introduced by ECCTA ss.28-30, effective 4 March 2024, the registered office must be an address where service of documents can be acknowledged, where someone is present to receive correspondence, and which meets Companies House's appropriate-address criteria.
What typically qualifies: accountant's office (where the accountant provides registered-office services as part of the engagement); staffed virtual office (where premises are physically staffed during business hours); director's residential address (where the director is present to acknowledge documents). What typically does not qualify: pure PO-box services; pure mail-forwarding services with no physical premises or staff.
Companies that fail the test face a particular operational risk: Companies House can move the company's registered office to a default address, which triggers a series of compliance flags on the file. The remediation cost (reroute to an accountant's office, often £0 where the accountant already provides company-secretarial services; or to a staffed virtual office, typically £50 to £300 a year) is small relative to the consequence of a default-address move.
A Typical Landlord LtdCo SPV Annual Cycle
A typical small landlord LtdCo SPV (anonymised: Patel BTL 1 Ltd, modelled on a single-property SPV with a single landlord director and PSC) runs a clean post-ECCTA confirmation statement as follows.
Director: Mr Patel. PSC: Mr Patel (holding more than 25% of shares). Registered office: accountant's office (appropriate-address compliant). Registered email: accountant's monitored mailbox. Share capital: one share class with one issued share to Mr Patel. SIC code: 68209 (Other letting and operating of own or leased real estate). Annual filing: £50 online via WebFiling. Time taken once the data is settled: around ten minutes. Lawful purposes tick-box: confirmed. Mr Patel's verified personal code quoted twice (once for the director role, once for the PSC role, same code for both because it is the same natural person).
For a five-SPV Patel portfolio with Mr Patel as the common director and PSC across all SPVs, the workflow scales linearly: five filings, £250 a year in fees, one personal code amortised across all five. The per-natural-person rule is what keeps the workflow manageable for multi-SPV portfolios.
Where to File and Check the Register
Filing: Companies House WebFiling portal or the Find and update company information service at find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk. The online route is overwhelmingly the operational default. Register checking: the same service shows the public register entries for any UK company, including confirmation statement filing history, directors, PSCs, accounts, and the current registered office and registered email confirmation status. Free access.
For the state of the ECCTA reforms more broadly: the Companies House campaign page at changestoukcompanylaw.campaign.gov.uk is the canonical tracker, with topic sub-pages including a dedicated confirmation statement changes section. The Companies House blog at companieshouse.blog.gov.uk is the secondary tracker for operational announcements.
This Page and the 2024-Onwards Deep-Dive
This page is the definitional pillar: the entry-level walkthrough for the reader who has not yet engaged with the changes and wants the on-ramp on what a confirmation statement is, what it contains, when it is due, what it costs, and what the penalties are for missing it. For the change-by-change operational walkthrough on the four ECCTA-era additions, our 2024-onwards confirmation statement changes page is the deep-dive sibling. For the broader umbrella view across all the Companies House reforms, see our taxonomy umbrella, our business-value umbrella, and our navigation roadmap. For the policy-shift interpretation, see our tightens-ID-rules page.
Authorities Cited
- Companies Act 2006 (contents)
- Companies Act 2006 s.853A (Duty to deliver confirmation statements)
- Companies Act 2006 Part 15 (Accounts and reports)
- Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 (contents)
- ECCTA 2023 s.64 (Identity verification of persons with significant control)
- ECCTA 2023 s.68 (Allocation of unique identifiers)
- Finance Act 1998 Sch 18 (Corporation tax self-assessment)
- Companies House Changes to UK Company Law campaign page
- Companies House Find and update company information service