New legislation – Protection and Disclosure of Personal Information (Amendment) Regulations 2025
10th July 2025
New legislation was drafted in May 2025, known as the Protection and Disclosure of Personal Information (Amendment) Regulations 2025. These regulations will expand the protection of personal information on public registers such as Companies House. Currently, a director of a company can apply to remove their address from their listing on Companies House via the Registrar of Companies and/or prevent it from being disclosed to credit reference agencies (CRAs). They would need to justify doing so or meet qualifying criteria.
This new legislation will allow anyone to apply for protection of their residential address, signature, business occupation and the day element of their date of birth. Individuals need not provide any reason for suppressing their details. This legislation is expected to pass into law on or before 21st July 2025.
Current regulations
At present, an individual must show that having their personal details publicly available on Companies House and disclosure to CRAs would put them at risk of violence or intimidation. This protection is currently only extended to directors, statutory secretaries and other persons with significant control (PSCs) of a UK company. This new regulation will allow any individual to have their residential address suppressed from public view.
Reasons for the new legislation
Directors and other entities with significant control of a company should have their details listed on Companies House to facilitate them being held responsible for that company’s affairs; however, this can put some people at risk of identity theft, fraud or even intimidation and violence.
The Corporate Transparency and Register Reform White Paper, published in February 2022, set out plans to reform Companies House and increase transparency of UK corporate entities. This then led to the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act (ECCTA) 2023, which reformed the role and powers of the registrar of companies, including measures to prevent the abuse of personal information on the Companies Register. This new regulation expands on ECCTA in order to prevent the abuse of personal information found on the Companies House register.
The explanatory memorandum published alongside the drafted regulations states that: “It is an individual’s absolute right to have their residential address, signature, day of date of birth, and business occupation protected.” – Source: legislation.gov.uk
Exceptions to the new legislation
There are some exceptions to the new regulations. For example, it is not possible to apply to protect a registered office address or a ‘single alternative inspection location address’. In such cases, a replacement service address must be provided to be listed at Companies House. An individual also cannot apply to protect information relating to charges, as that would require the registrar to make an entity’s name unavailable for public inspection. The registrar is also still obligated to share data with law enforcement agencies and other government departments if required.
These new regulations seek to balance the need for transparency of corporate entities with the individual’s right to privacy. The changes are part of a wider reform of ECCTA that gives greater powers to Companies House to verify the identity of directors and PSCs, the ability to query information, stronger checks on company names, and more.
Do you need further guidance on this new legislation? Don’t hesitate to contact us here at Griffin House, or call us for a chat on 01673 885533.
Author: Mike Martin LLM
Mike is an information rights law specialist and one of the founding Directors of the Griffin House Consultancy, a leading specialist data protection and information governance consultancy firm that supports hundreds of clients annually with their training, consulting and auditing requirements.
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