Companies House

Concerning 4th March Announcements to Companies House Staff

Companies House has a vision to become a fully electronic registry. With a number of significant documents already in place and being used actively by our customers, we expect most other key documentation to be ready for digital transactions by March 2013. This will represent around 92% of all transactions by volume and covers 98% of companies. In doing this we will be providing our customers with more efficient, more secure and more accurate services at significantly reduced cost compared to traditional paper-based transactions. We are also addressing the streamlining of our services in general and for increased efficiency.

We held meetings on the 4th March, with our staff to add further detail to how this change will be achieved and some of the exciting challenges as well as some of the difficult choices we face in the coming two years. One of the important aspects of the changes we anticipate will be an over-all reduction of the staff compliment by around 200 - 250 from a current, consolidated figure of 985. We expect the initial reduction will be around 85 staff, to be achieved by March 2012 with remainder leaving on a carefully planned basis as our services are redeveloped.

We realise that this will make it a challenging year for staff and we will be doing all we can to work with them and the Trade Union to provided effective support and guidance at this time. We will be running a range of exit schemes that will allow staff access to voluntary early severance and retirement options for those in the appropriate age ranges. As such, we do expect that these reductions can and will be achieved on an entirely voluntary basis. For those leaving and those remaining we will aim, as always, to keep staff fully appraised and updated in a timely way throughout this period of change.

More information on our service developments

By way of a concise summary of the announcement details today:

• Companies House has over the last few years been moving from a paper based processing organisation to an electronic registry as more companies file information on line.
• The move on line brings significant benefits to customers such as faster processing, improved quality, lower costs, improved security.
• Companies House has reduced its headcount by over 150 FTE over the last 4 years and will continue to reduce over the next 3 years as more companies file online and Companies House delivers further efficiencies.
• As part of the wider government digital agenda Companies House plans to move to electronic only filing by March 2013 for the majority of standard filings by companies. This change combined with other efficiencies and work on shared services will mean that we will require approximately 200 - 250 fewer roles by 2013.
• As the first stage of this change we plan to reduce staff numbers by 80 - 100 in 2011/12 and aim to do this voluntarily.
• To achieve this reduction we will be launching a voluntary exit scheme today.
• There has been full engagement with the local Trade Union.

Neil White
Internal Communications & Press Manager
Companies House
Press Desk: 029 20380161

Companies House Press Team
press@companieshouse.gov.uk
Tel: +44 (0)303 1234 500
Minicom: 029 20381245