IT implications delay Companies Act

Companies House says major systems changes mean an extra year is needed

Timms: Delays are needed to ensure Companies Act is correctly implemented

Parts of the Companies Act will not be implemented until October 2009 - a year later than originally expected – because IT systems at Companies House may not be ready in time.

The Companies Act - the largest act ever passed - aims to overhaul company law.

The delayed part of the legislation changes the way firms register their details with Companies House.

Competitiveness minister Stephen Timms said the changes were to ensure that the act was implemented correctly.

"We need to make sure the necessary changes to the Companies House systems and processes are in place before we bring the final provisions of the Act into force," he said.

The changes will mean that some expected cost savings for businesses may be delayed.

Tom Smith, director of customer delivery at Companies House, said the number of changes to the organisation’s processes required by the act have led to a major systems change.

"We are working to a programme plan which has a completion date of October 2008. However, we have very little contingency within this plan. In addition, some of our customers - especially intermediaries who develop and supply software for electronic filing - had expressed concern that they would not have enough time to modify their systems and roll out the necessary changes to their customers,” he said.

“We therefore recommended to ministers that it would be better to delay the final implementation of the Act until October 2009 to ensure a smooth implementation".