What is a confirmation statement? Companies House explained

The confirmation statement is a snapshot, not a set of new information. It confirms that the company's registered office, directors, secretary (if any), statement of capital, shareholders and people with significant control are up to date on the public register as at the review date.

If nothing has changed since the last statement or incorporation, you simply confirm this is the case. If something has changed, such as a new director or an SIC code update, you file the relevant change (for example AP01 or a PSC notification) either alongside the statement or before it, since the statement itself does not update most of these details.

Before 30 June 2016, companies filed an annual return (form AR01), which restated a wide range of company information each year. The confirmation statement replaced it with a simpler check-and-confirm approach: you only need to actively update the register where something has genuinely changed.

Anyone searching for their "annual return" filing today is almost always looking for the confirmation statement, since the annual return no longer exists as a filing requirement.

Every company has a review period of 12 months, running from incorporation or from the date of the previous statement. The confirmation statement must then be delivered to Companies House within 14 days of the end of that review period.

This is different from a fixed date each year: the review period rolls forward each time you file, so filing early does not shorten the following year's deadline unless you also bring forward the review date.

Filing online costs £50 for the whole 12-month review period, however many times you choose to update information within it. There is no extra fee for the changes themselves when filed with the statement, only for certain separate transactions such as a paper filing, which costs more.

Unlike accounts, there is no scaled financial penalty for a late confirmation statement. Instead, failing to file is a criminal offence, and Companies House can move to strike the company off the register for not delivering statutory information.

In practice, Companies House sends reminders and allows a period to catch up, but a persistent failure to file is one of the most common reasons a company is struck off involuntarily.

The statement itself is a short online form, and many directors file it themselves without difficulty. Where it gets more involved is when the underlying register needs updating first, for example a share allotment, a change in PSC status, or director appointments and resignations that have not yet been filed.

We check the register is accurate before confirming it, rather than confirming information that may already be wrong.

We prepare and file confirmation statements, checking the underlying register first (confirmation-statement-filing).

Not sure when yours is due? Use our free filing due date checker (tools/filing-due-date-checker) to work out the date from your incorporation or last filing.

We are an independent firm of Chartered Accountants, not Companies House or HMRC.

Rates, thresholds and deadlines quoted here reflect the 2026/27 UK tax year. Check current GOV.UK guidance, or ask us, before relying on them for your own company.