For clients who may not be aware, Companies House offers the above free service, the purpose of which is to stop paper forms from being fraudulently filed, as well as any identify theft.

If you are not registered for this scheme, anyone in theory could post a form to Companies House pertaining to be you to change the information that is held on the public record. These include forms that would enable a new director to be appointed or a director to be removed, to change the company’s registered office address and to change the name of the company, as well as to file a confirmation statement.

To sign up to this service, you need to be registered for the Companies House WebFiling service. Then when you sign into your account, you just need to click on ‘Join PROOF’ and follow the instructions.

Once registered, Companies House will automatically reject any paper forms within this scheme and will instead only accept them when submitted electronically. This ensures that any requested changes have come from the company itself and not by a fraudulent party.

If you wish to know more about this scheme or require help registering for it, please contact us on either 01227 277667 or at admin@mphaccountants.co.uk.