Add or change a corporate PSC: relevant legal entity (PSC02 / PSC05)

A person with significant control is an individual. But a company can also be owned or controlled by a legal entity, such as a parent company. If that entity is both relevant and registrable, its details go on the PSC register instead of the people behind it.

Companies House guidance says a legal entity is relevant if it meets at least one of the five PSC conditions and either:

• it must itself report its PSCs to Companies House (for example, a UK limited company or LLP), or
• it has voting shares admitted to trading on a regulated market in the UK or EEA, or on specified markets in Switzerland, the USA, Japan or Israel.

A relevant legal entity is registrable only if it is the first relevant legal entity in your company's ownership chain. For example, if UK Company B owns all of your company, you report Company B. You do not report Company B's own parent or the people who own it. They appear on Company B's register.

Many corporate owners are not relevant legal entities. Companies House gives these examples: an overseas company without listed voting shares, including an overseas parent of a UK company, and an entity on the Register of Overseas Entities. Charitable incorporated organisations are not relevant either. You cannot register these with PSC02.

Instead, you look through them. You find any individual or relevant legal entity with a majority stake in that owner, such as most of its voting rights. If that owner is also not relevant, you keep looking up the chain. An individual you find is reported with PSC01, and a relevant legal entity with PSC02. If you find nobody, you report that to Companies House with a PSC statement.

See also: who is a person with significant control

Companies House recommends filing PSC information online where possible. Paper forms take longer to process and must be printed full size on white A4 paper.

• PSC02: give notice of a new relevant legal entity with significant control.
• PSC05: change the details of a relevant legal entity already on the register.
• PSC03: give notice of an other registrable person, which is a national or local government or government department, an international organisation of two or more countries, or a corporation sole.
• PSC06: change the details of an other registrable person.
• PSC07: when the entity stops having significant control. This is a separate service.

• The entity's full name and the address of its principal office.
• Its legal form, such as private limited company, and the law that governs it, such as England and Wales.
• If it is on a register: the name of the register, the country and its registration number.
• Which of the five PSC conditions it meets, for example its share band, voting band or right to appoint or remove most of the directors.
• The date it became registrable (not before 6 April 2016), or for a change, the date of the change.
• For PSC02, the later date the entity confirmed its status and details to your company.
• Your completed form and, for online filing, your company authentication code.
• The printed name and capacity of the person signing off the form. No handwritten signature is needed.
• A full physical principal-office address. A PO box must sit inside a full address, and DX or LP numbers cannot be used.
• Everything on the form goes on the public register, including any presenter contact details you add.

Use PSC05 when a corporate PSC already on the register changes its details. Fill in only the parts that changed.

If no control condition is left, the entity has stopped being a PSC. Use the remove-a-PSC service (PSC07) instead.

• The entity's name exactly as it is on the register now, even if the name is what is changing.
• What changed and the date it changed. Changes on different dates need separate forms.
• The later date the entity confirmed the change to your company.
• If its register details change, the matching registration number.
• If control changed: every condition that now applies, with the exact share and voting bands.
• The printed name and capacity of the person signing off the form. No handwritten signature or personal code is needed.

PSC03 is for a body that is not an ordinary company: a corporation sole, a government or government department, a local authority, or an international organisation with at least two countries or territories (or their governments) as members.

You do not need the body itself to confirm its details. If a date or detail cannot be found, we look at the route with you before you pay. We never guess it.

• The body's exact name, principal office, legal form and governing law.
• The date it became registrable.
• Every control condition that applies, with the exact share and voting bands.
• The later date your company established its status and details, and how you know.
• The printed name and capacity of the person signing off the form. No handwritten signature, registration number, birth details or personal code is needed.

Use PSC06 when a body already on the register as an other registrable person changes its details. Fill in only the parts that changed. The body does not need to confirm the change itself.

If no control condition is left, use the remove-a-PSC service (PSC07) instead. If a date or detail is missing, choose review and we look at it with you. We never guess it.

• The body's name exactly as it is on the register now.
• What changed and the date it changed. Changes on different dates need separate forms.
• The later date your company established the change, and how you know.
• If control changed: every condition that now applies, with the exact share and voting bands.
• The printed name and capacity of the person signing off the form. No handwritten signature, registration number, birth details or personal code is needed.

Once a relevant legal entity has confirmed its details, you must tell Companies House within 14 days. When you know or suspect an entity has become registrable but do not yet have confirmation, Companies House says you must report that within 14 days, and send it a notice asking it to confirm. It has one month to reply.

The same applies to changes. When a registered entity's details change, you update Companies House within 14 days of having confirmation. Failing to keep PSC information up to date is a criminal offence.

Not yet. Companies House's legal entities guidance (version 5, November 2025) says identity verification does not yet apply to registrable relevant legal entities. It does apply to individual PSCs and directors. If a person behind your company is an individual PSC, they must verify separately.

Find your company, tell us what needs to change, give the relevant date and upload the completed form with the supporting details. We check the entity is registrable, the form matches the type of owner, and the bands and dates make sense. If the entity is not registrable, we tell you before anything is filed.

You approve the filing before it is submitted. The register changes only when Companies House accepts it. A receipt or payment is not the same as acceptance.

• Registering an overseas parent company that is not listed on a specified market. It is not a relevant legal entity.
• Reporting the whole group chain. Only the first relevant legal entity is registrable.
• Using PSC01 for a company owner, or PSC02 for a council or government department (PSC03).
• Counting a parent with a 25% holding. The share and voting tests need more than 25%.
• Leaving out the governing law, or where registration applies, the register, country/state and matching registration number.
• Waiting for the confirmation statement. Changes are due within 14 days.