Maintaining your UK startup’s statutory registers: a practical guide

Your startup’s statutory registers are the backbone of your company’s legal record keeping. They sit alongside your articles of association and board minutes as core constitutional documents. If you plan to raise funding, sell the business, or simply stay compliant with the Companies Act 2006, you need to keep them accurate and accessible. This guide explains what the key registers are, what you should capture, and how to maintain them without it turning into a monthly headache.

We are talking about UK private limited companies here. Public companies have additional requirements. Nothing in this post is legal advice. If you are unsure about your obligations, speak to a solicitor.

What are statutory registers?

They are the official records your company is required to keep by law. They log who owns the company, who runs it, and other important information. You must keep them at your registered office, your SAIL address (if you have one), or Companies House if you notify them. An inspector can request to see them, and shareholders have a right to inspect some of them free of charge.

The main registers for a typical startup are:

• Register of members
• Register of directors
• Register of directors’ residential addresses (separate from the service address)
• Register of secretaries (if you appoint one)
• Register of people with significant control (PSC register)

You may also need registers of charges (if you take on secured borrowing) and of debenture holders, but we will focus on the most common ones.

Register of members

This records who holds shares in your company. It is not the same as your cap table, although they should match. The register of members is the definitive legal record of share ownership.

You must record, for each member:

• Name and postal address
• Date they became a member
• Number and class of shares held
• Date they ceased to be a member (if they transferred or sold all their shares)

Update it whenever you issue new shares, transfer shares, or a shareholder changes their name or address. You do not need to file the register itself with Companies House, but you do include summary information when you file a confirmation statement and share allotment returns (SH01).

If you use a digital cap table platform, check that your register of members still exists as a standalone document you can export. An online dashboard is useful, but you still need a compliant register.

Register of directors

This is a straightforward list of everyone who is a director of the company. For each director, record:

• Full name (including any former names)
• Service address (this can be the company’s registered office)
• Country or state of residence
• Nationality
• Business occupation (if any)
• Date of birth
• Date they became a director
• Date they ceased to be a director (if they resigned or were removed)

The service address is the address that appears on the public register at Companies House. It does not have to be their home address.

When you appoint or remove a director, update the register immediately and file the appropriate forms with Companies House (AP01, TM01, CH01 for changes). The register should always mirror what Companies House holds, so treat it as a single source of truth that you reconcile after each filing.

Register of directors’ residential addresses

This is a separate, non-public register that records each director’s usual residential address. It is not the same as the service address. Only certain people can inspect it, such as law enforcement or regulatory bodies. Keep this register private, stored securely, and out of view from anyone who asks to see the other registers.

Update it whenever a director moves home. No corresponding filing is needed at Companies House for this address, unless the director wants to use it as their service address as well.

Register of secretaries

Many startups do not appoint a company secretary. If you do, you must maintain a register that includes:

• Full name (company name if it is a corporate secretary)
• Service address
• Date of appointment and, if they leave, the date they ceased

Again, update it whenever you make a change and file the relevant Companies House forms.

PSC register

This records the people who have significant control over your company. A PSC is anyone who holds, directly or indirectly:

• More than 25% of the shares
• More than 25% of the voting rights
• The right to appoint or remove a majority of the board
• The right to exercise significant influence or control

For each PSC you must record:

• Name, date of birth, nationality
• Service address and residential address (both, but the residential address is not public)
• Date they became a PSC
• Nature of their control (using the statutory categories)
• Whether they have started or stopped being a PSC

The PSC register sits alongside your register of members. You file PSC information with your confirmation statement, so the register should be updated before you submit that filing. If something changes mid-year, update the register at once and notify Companies House using forms PSC01 to PSC09 as appropriate.

How to keep your registers up to date

A simple approach works for most small companies:

• Create a single spreadsheet or Word document for each register, saved as a PDF for sharing when needed.
• After every board meeting, check whether any changes happened: new share issues, director appointments, PSC changes.
• Assign one person (often the COO or an ops lead) to hold the master copies and update them within the week.
• Reconcile the registers with your Companies House filings at least each quarter. This catches any missing updates.
• Keep a log of when each register was last updated, tucked in the document metadata or a simple changelog.

If paperwork sounds heavy, remember that these registers are rarely long. For a three-founder startup, the register of members might be half a page. The value is in the rigour, not the volume.

Where to store them

The law requires you to keep registers at your registered office or at a single alternative inspection location (SAIL) that you have notified to Companies House. For most startups, the registered office is a service address already. Store digital versions in a folder that can be accessed by whoever handles compliance, alongside copies of your certificate of incorporation, articles, and board minutes. Export PDFs for safe keeping, and consider keeping a printed copy at the office if you have one. Investor due diligence will ask for these documents, and a tidy, up-to-date set tells a good story about how you run the company.

A note on older registers

When someone leaves or a PSC changes, you still retain the historical entry. Do not delete it. You mark the end date instead. This preserves the full record of who held what position and when, which is invaluable if a question arises years later.

When to ask for help

For a straightforward ownership and director setup, you can maintain the registers yourself using guidance on GOV.UK. When you introduce multiple share classes, complex founder leaver provisions, or an EMI option scheme, the interaction between cap table, articles, and registers gets more delicate. That is the point to involve a solicitor or a company secretary service.

Keeping your statutory registers accurate does not take much time once you have the habit. Get them set up early and treat them as living documents. When an investor asks for your statutory books, you will be minutes away from handing them over, complete and up to date.