Companies House

Cost Recovery Principles

Companies House is a Trading Fund and must operate on the basis of cost recovery. Companies House fees are linked, as required by European Law and HM Treasury guidance, to the forecast cost of providing each service and the way in which customers access them.

Companies House considers the following when setting its fees:

• As a Trading Fund, Companies House has a statutory duty to break even over time and to achieve an average annual return (surplus) of 3.5%.
• Managing Public Money requires fees to be set to recover the full cost for each separate service allowing for a cost of capital of 3.5%. This prohibits cross-subsidy between different services.
• The EC First Company Law Directive, requires copies of company records to be made available at the "administrative cost" of producing them.
• The EC Capital Taxes Directive allows company registration costs to be met from fees, but prohibits charges that are effectively taxes. This means that prices cannot be set above costs for the relevant services.
• Case law ( Fantask A/S e.a. v Industriministeriet (Erhvervministeriet and Ponente Carni SpA and Cispandana Costruzioni SpA v Amministrazione delle Finanze dello Stato) provides further guidance on the costs that can, and cannot, be taken into account for fee-setting.
• The Competition Act 1998 prohibits the abuse of a dominant position in a market.

The link below provides an overview of Companies House costs.

Overview of Companies House costs