Companies House updates incorporation and naming guidance

Companies House has revised its UK incorporation and company naming guidance, updating provisions concerning the use of university in Welsh company names and a High Court reference on 19 October 2026.

The changes affect two annexes used when assessing restricted words and expressions. The guide covers setting up a company, choosing its name and disclosing company information, with its scope also extending to business names and charitable incorporated organisations.

What happened

The latest update published by Companies House changes the geographical headings beneath the university entry in Annex A. The England and Wales heading now expressly excludes Welsh companies within section 88 of the Companies Act 2006.

The separate Wales heading has also been revised to refer to Welsh companies within that section. Both amendments make the statutory category explicit in the headings used to direct applicants to the relevant provisions.

Annex B replaces its reference to the Chancery Division of the High Court with the Business and Property Division of the High Court. The update notice identifies a change to the court reference, rather than announcing a wider revision of the naming controls.

The annexes address different restrictions. Annex A covers sensitive words and expressions requiring prior approval before they can be used in a company or business name.

Annex B deals with wording that could suggest a connection with a government department, devolved administration, or local or specified public authority. Annex C separately covers words and expressions protected by other legislation.

The background

The naming revisions follow a series of changes to incorporation guidance during 2026. On 1 February, a section covering other incorporation types was added and fees were updated, although the supplied update record does not give the revised amounts.

On 11 June, the registrar warned that processing delays could mean filings took longer than usual to appear on the register. Same-day processing was unavailable until further notice. That warning was removed on 19 June, when normal processing had resumed.

Those notices concerned filing processing, distinct from the separate move to software-only accounts filing from April 2028. The June interruption is therefore a historical entry in the guidance record, not a current delay announced by this update.

An amendment on 18 November 2025 brought the guide into line with changes to company registers and the launch of mandatory identity verification. The following month, on 15 December, contact details for the Home Office were updated in both Annex A and Annex B.

Earlier revisions reflected measures under the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act on 4 March 2024. Further guidance on 15 July that year explained the definition of an appropriate address and the process followed when a company does not provide one.

The accuracy of register information also sits behind separate enforcement activity, including a Companies House investigation that led to seven firms being wound up. The October naming amendments do not themselves announce an investigation or action against an individual company.

The guide has also changed how applicants can access its supporting material. Annexes A, B and C were converted to HTML in January 2017, and sensitive-word annexes were made available as CSV files in March 2019.

Online incorporation options have featured in earlier revisions. Guidance on setting up a community interest company online was added on 19 September 2019, while an explanation of who can incorporate had been added in March 2018.

The detail

A separate amendment on 25 June 2026 added a point to section 6.7, which addresses exceptions to the rules on names treated as the same. It concerns a proposed name that differs from its parent company's name through matters specified in paragraph 5 of schedule 3 of the Company, Limited Liability Partnership and Business (Names and Trading Disclosures) Regulations 2015.

That entry is confined to the stated exception. The update record does not set out the full section, so it does not provide the complete conditions an applicant would need to check before relying on it.

On 21 July 2026, wording beneath the ombudsman entry in Annex A was clarified. The list of requirements in that entry applies only to non-statutory bodies, a distinction relevant to organisations considering that term in their name.

The sensitive-word material has been adjusted over time rather than remaining a fixed list. An amendment concerning polytechnic and university appeared in August 2018, while pharmaceutical was removed from Annex C in June 2020.

Address arrangements form another part of the guide. An April 2022 revision, made in line with Trading Standards recommendations and section 86 of the Companies Act 2006, says companies using a third-party mail agent must ensure all mail is forwarded, regardless of its source.

That mail-handling requirement is distinct from the registrar's suspended and ceased authorised corporate service provider list. Businesses using an intermediary need to distinguish arrangements for receiving correspondence from the provider's status for other company services.

The guide also warns that a home address becomes publicly available if it is used as a service address or the company's registered office. A home-address warning and a reference to public-information guidance were added in June 2019.

What happens next

The supplied update record gives no implementation deadline or further scheduled revision following the 19 October changes. It records amendments to existing guidance rather than a new application window.

For an incorporation application, the guide directs attention to the intended company type, the proposed name and its restrictions, and the information that must be disclosed. Its public-information guidance is the accompanying reference for applicants considering using their home address.