Add a person with significant control (PSC01)

A person with significant control, or PSC, is someone who owns or controls your company. They do not have to be a director. In a small company, a PSC is often a shareholder who also runs the business, but not always.

Someone is a PSC if they meet one or more of these five conditions. They can meet a condition directly or indirectly, for example through another company they control.

• They hold more than 25% of the company's shares.
• They hold more than 25% of the voting rights.
• They have the right to appoint or remove a majority of the board of directors.
• They otherwise have the right to exercise, or actually exercise, significant influence or control over the company.
• They have significant influence or control over a trust or a firm without legal personality that itself meets one of the conditions above. If a trust or firm meets a condition, all its trustees or members are recorded as PSCs.

Before anything is filed, we check three things: that the PSC01 is filed in time, that the ownership and voting bands are right, and that the company does not need a PSC statement instead.

An individual PSC is added with form PSC01, usually filed online. Companies House says you must tell it about PSC information within 14 days of confirming the details. Confirming means the person has confirmed they are a PSC and that their details are correct. This is often a few days after they actually gained control, so PSC01 records two dates: when they became a PSC and when the details were confirmed.

Ownership and voting are reported in bands, not exact figures: more than 25% up to 50%, more than 50% but less than 75%, and 75% or more. The 'significant influence or control' option is only used when none of the share, voting or director appointment conditions apply.

Your company's PSC information cannot be blank. If you are still finding out who controls the company, or you believe nobody qualifies, you file a PSC statement instead. Companies House expects you to try to identify and contact anyone who could be a PSC. If you do not have someone's details, you can send them a notice. Anyone who fails to reply within one calendar month, or gives false information, commits a criminal offence.

See also: who is a person with significant control

• The PSC's full name, full date of birth, nationality and the country where they usually live.
• A correspondence address for the public register. This can be the registered office if the company agrees.
• Their home address. This is not shown publicly. It must be a residential address, not a PO box.
• How they control the company: their share band, voting band, any right to appoint or remove most directors, and any right to exercise or actual significant influence or control. Identify every applicable firm and trust separately and its actual share/voting bands and other qualifying rights.
• The date they became a PSC and the date the company confirmed their status and details.
• Whether they have applied, or are applying, to protect their details. If so, tell us before you enter anything.
• The company authentication code, so the filing can be made for your company.

Every PSC must verify their identity with Companies House and provide their personal code. The official PSC01 allows optional verified identity details when the PSC has shared their code, or the code can be provided separately within the applicable 14-day window after addition. Our PSC01 service leaves that optional identity bundle blank; use the separate PSC verification service to provide the code. Verifying directly through GOV.UK One Login is free.

Adding someone with PSC01 does not complete their identity verification. If they stay a PSC after their deadline without meeting the verification rules, Companies House says they may be committing an offence. If the person is also a director, the director and PSC roles need separate submissions. Our separate PSC verification service can link an existing personal code to their PSC role.

There is one exception in current guidance: a PSC who has died does not need to verify. Their entry stays on the register until a grant of probate or letters of administration have been received.

See also: Companies House identity verification guide

A PSC's home address and the day of their date of birth are not shown on the public register. The name, month and year of birth, nationality, country of residence, correspondence address and nature of control are public.

A PSC can apply to protect their home address from credit reference agencies, or to hide all their PSC information from the public register. For either, they must show that they, or someone they live with, would be at serious risk of violence or intimidation because of the company's activities or their own circumstances. Each application costs £100 (also £100 if you apply for both together) and is made by post on a paper form to the Companies House secure registers team.

Public-register protection or a pending application requires a secure form. CRA-only home-address protection is different: official guidance allows continuing online, while the current paper PSC01 has a different postal address. Our standard intake excludes both protection cases and reviews their actual route before collecting personal details.

Find your company, then fill in the PSC's details, how they control the company and the two dates. We review your answers, check the bands and dates make sense, and point out anything missing or unclear. You approve the filing before it is submitted.

The register changes only when Companies House accepts the filing. Payment or a submission receipt is not the same as acceptance, so keep a copy of the approved filing and check the outcome.

• Waiting until the next confirmation statement. PSC changes are reported within 14 days, not once a year.
• Treating exactly 25% as significant control. The test is more than 25%.
• Ticking 'significant influence or control' as well as a share or voting band. It is only for control that does not fit the other conditions.
• Listing a shareholder company on PSC01. A company or other legal entity owner uses a different form, if it is registrable at all.
• Forgetting indirect control, such as shares held through another company the person controls, or a trust.
• Assuming the filing also verifies the person's identity. It does not.
• Entering details for someone who has applied for protection on the standard route.