Statutory Registers Every Company Must Keep in 2026

What statutory registers are, and why they matter

Statutory registers are the formal internal records a company is required by law to maintain about its own membership and its dealings. They are distinct from accounting records, which track money in and out of the business. Historically the registers gave shareholders, creditors and the public a reliable way to see who held shares, who the officers were and whether the company's assets were charged.

The registers are not an optional administrative nicety. They are governed by specific sections of the Companies Act 2006, each carrying its own duty to keep the register, rules on where it must be available for inspection, and penalties for default. A well maintained register is also the first document lawyers and buyers ask for during due diligence, so accuracy has commercial as well as legal value.

If you are still at the incorporation stage, our company formation service sets up your company and its opening records correctly from day one, so you are not retrofitting compliance later.

What ECCTA 2023 changed

The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 shifts the emphasis from companies keeping their own internal registers towards registering the information directly with Companies House and keeping it up to date there. As the official Changes to UK Company Law site puts it, companies no longer need to hold registers of directors, directors' residential addresses, secretaries, and people with significant control.

The relevant Companies Act sections were formally omitted by ECCTA. Section 162 (register of directors), section 165 (register of directors' residential addresses) and section 275 (register of secretaries) were omitted, as was Chapter 3 of Part 21A (which contained the duty to keep a register of people with significant control at section 790M). Legislation.gov.uk records each of these as omitted for specified purposes from 26 October 2023 and in so far as not already in force from 18 November 2025.

A separate change followed for the register of members. Companies had been able, since 2016, to elect to keep certain information on the central register at Companies House rather than in their own books. That option was removed for directors, secretaries and PSCs on 18 November 2025, and the equivalent election for the register of members ended on 26 January 2026. Any company that had elected to hold its members' information centrally must now bring that register back in-house.

The register of members: still mandatory

The one register almost every company must still keep is the register of members. Section 113 of the Companies Act 2006 states that every company must keep a register of its members, and that requirement is unchanged by ECCTA. The register must record the names and addresses of the members, the date each person became a member and the date any person ceased to be a member.

For a company with share capital, the register must also show the shares held by each member, distinguishing each share by its number where it has one, and by its class where the company has more than one class of issued shares, together with the amount paid or agreed to be considered as paid on those shares. Where shares are held jointly, the names of each joint holder are entered.

The register is not something you can quietly discard once someone leaves. Under section 121, an entry relating to a former member may only be removed after the expiration of ten years from the date on which that person ceased to be a member. In practice this means you keep historic shareholder entries for a decade after they exit.

Where the register must be kept and who can inspect it

Section 114 requires the register of members to be kept available for inspection at the company's registered office, or at a place specified in regulations under section 1136. That alternative location is commonly referred to as a single alternative inspection location, or SAIL. If you keep the register anywhere other than the registered office, you must tell the registrar where it is held.

The register is a public document in the sense that members and the wider public have inspection rights. Section 116 gives any member of the company the right to inspect without charge, and any other person the right to inspect on payment of the prescribed fee. A person who is not a member must supply their name and address, the purpose for which the information is to be used, and details of anyone to whom the information will be disclosed. This proper purpose test lets a company challenge requests that are not legitimate.

Default carries real consequences. Where a company fails to keep the register or make it available as required, an offence is committed by the company and every officer in default. On summary conviction the penalty is a fine not exceeding level 3 on the standard scale, with a daily default fine of up to one-tenth of level 3 for continued contravention.

Charges: the record you still have to hold

The second surviving obligation concerns charges over the company's assets. While the historic register of charges regime has been superseded, section 859P of the Companies Act 2006 still requires a company to keep available for inspection a copy of every instrument creating a charge capable of registration, and every instrument effecting any variation or amendment of such a charge. Where a series of uniform debentures is involved, one copy of the series is enough.

Section 859Q sets out where those copies must be available and who may see them. They must be kept at the company's registered office or at a place specified in regulations under section 1136. Any creditor or member of the company may inspect them without charge, and any other person may do so on payment of the prescribed fee. As with the members' register, failure to comply is an offence carrying a fine not exceeding level 3 on the standard scale, with a daily default fine for continued contravention.

The registration of the charge itself at Companies House is a separate step with its own strict deadline, and getting that wrong can make a charge void against a liquidator or creditor. Keeping the underlying instruments available for inspection is the internal record-keeping duty that sits alongside it.

Setting up and maintaining your registers

Even with a shorter list of mandatory registers, the surviving obligations reward a disciplined process. The register of members has to be accurate on incorporation and updated every time shares are issued, transferred or bought back, and the charge records have to be kept in step with any new security the company grants. Treat these as living documents rather than a one-off setup task.

The steps below outline a practical routine. If you would rather delegate the ongoing upkeep, our ongoing compliance support keeps your register of members and charge records current and flags the filings that go alongside them.

Penalties and the wider record-keeping duty

Failing to keep the required registers is not a minor slip. As noted above, breaches of the members' register and charge record duties are criminal offences punishable by a fine at level 3 on the standard scale, with daily default fines for ongoing non-compliance, and the company's officers can be prosecuted alongside the company.

The statutory registers also sit inside a broader record-keeping obligation. GOV.UK guidance on running a limited company states that you can be fined 3,000 pounds by HMRC or disqualified as a company director if you do not keep accounting records, and that records must generally be kept for six years from the end of the last company financial year they relate to. Together these rules mean that good record-keeping is both a company law duty and a tax law duty, enforced by different bodies.

Because the ECCTA reforms have moved so much information to Companies House, the practical risk has shifted from keeping internal registers to filing accurate, up to date information centrally. Keeping the two surviving registers clean, and your Companies House record current, is the combination that keeps a company on the right side of the law in 2026.

Conclusion

The list of statutory registers a company must keep is shorter in 2026 than it has been for a generation. ECCTA 2023 removed the registers of directors, directors' residential addresses, secretaries and people with significant control, because that information is now held and kept up to date at Companies House. What remains is the register of members under section 113, which almost every company must still maintain and keep available for inspection, and the copies of charge instruments required by sections 859P and 859Q.

The reduced list does not mean reduced responsibility. The surviving registers carry criminal penalties for default, the register of members must be accurate and retain former members for ten years, and the wider duty to keep proper accounting records still exposes directors to a 3,000 pound HMRC fine or disqualification. If you want the surviving registers set up and maintained correctly without the administrative burden falling on you, see our pricing or book a demo to see how we handle it.

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