Part 1: Companies House Reform Company formation Section 3: Information about subscribers
This section amends section 9 of the Companies Act 2006 (registration of documents) to expand the information that an application for the formation of a company must contain about its "subscribers". It must now include:
a statement of the required information about each of the subscribers to the memorandum of association (see section 9A).
a statement that none of the proposed company’s subscribers are disqualified directors. The definition of a disqualified person is provided in section 159A(2) of the Companies Act 2006. It covers persons disqualified under the Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986 and the Company Directors Disqualification (Northern Ireland) Order 2002. This definition concerns not only persons subject to disqualification orders and undertakings, but also: undischarged bankrupts, persons subject to bankruptcy restrictions order or undertakings, debt relief restrictions orders or undertakings and moratoriums under the debt relief orders, as well as persons subject to director disqualification sanctions under the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2018 ("SAMLA 2018"). If a proposed subscriber is a disqualified director who has received permission of a court to act as a director in the jurisdiction in which the company is registered, or they have been granted authority to act via a licence under the SAMLA 2018, the application must contain a statement to this effect providing detail about the court permission or licence where relevant.
	If the application does not include the information or statements required under section 9(3A), or if they are false, the Registrar will be able to reject the application to form a company.
	This section also inserts new section 9A into the Companies Act 2006. In the Companies Act 2006 and associated regulations there is no definition of "name" for subscribers to a memorandum of association, such that an individual subscriber could state their name is J Bloggs. Section 9A defines "name" as forename and surname, and in the case of a peer or individual usually known as a title, that title may be stated instead. This has the effect of requiring Joe Bloggs instead of J Bloggs, which provides more transparency as to who an individual subscriber is.
	There is currently no distinction made between subscribers who are individuals and subscribers who are body corporates or firms that are legal persons under the law by which they are governed. Section 9A also makes that distinction by separating the requirements, but the required information remains the same for both – name and service address.
	A power is provided to amend the subscriber information requirements and two similar powers are removed from the Companies Act 2006.