Weakly supervised verification agents and unreformed limited partnerships at Companies House
Identity verification became mandatory for new directors and PSCs on 18 November 2025; by 31 March 2026, 783,000 people had been verified by Authorised Corporate Service Providers. But ACSPs include trust and company service providers (historically the weakest-supervised AML sector), and until the FCA becomes single AML supervisor for professional services (decision announced June 2026, implementation acknowledged to take 'several years' with OPBAS continuing meanwhile), their supervision stays fragmented across many professional bodies. Limited-partnership reforms, the fix for Scottish Limited Partnerships used to move up to $80bn out of Russia, commence no sooner than spring 2026 and are not yet biting. Registered Overseas Entities trust-transparency changes are still being phased in.
The register is only as trustworthy as its gatekeepers. If a compromised ACSP can wave through verifications, ECCTA's flagship reform becomes security theatre, and the UK's role as the corporate-services hub for global laundromats persists under a compliant-looking surface.
An accelerated FCA supervision timetable with an interim ACSP audit and spot-check regime publishing per-firm performance data; rapid commencement of LP/SLP reforms with retrospective verification and strike-off; and a funded Companies House data-integrity unit systematically exercising its new querying powers against red-flag patterns.
// State-led: Instrument: FCA supervision timetable, LP-reform commencement orders, and a funded Companies House data-integrity unit.
The register is only as trustworthy as its gatekeepers, but agent supervision stays fragmented and partnership reforms bite slowly on a several-year timetable government already part-owns.
One gap, several dossiers: entries folded into this one (1)
The research pass surfaced this gap independently in more than one domain. Those entries are merged here so the map counts it once: AML-supervision consolidation is the same instrument as the accelerated single-supervisor timetable and ACSP audit regime.
№ 160 · ECCTA register reform undermined by fragmented anti-money-laundering supervision (Policy (lens))
ECCTA 2023 implementation is underway: identity verification became mandatory from 18 November 2025, 6-7 million individuals must verify by the end of the transition (late 2026), Companies House has added ~500 enforcement staff funded by higher fees, and the first prosecution for false company information has succeeded. But the load-bearing Authorised Corporate Service Provider regime depends on the existing patchwork of ~25 professional-body AML supervisors that Transparency International UK describes as mostly 'ineffective and deeply conflicted'; Tax Policy Associates identified ~65,000 companies apparently breaching beneficial-ownership rules. HM Treasury's consultation on consolidating AML supervision has not yet produced an implemented structural fix, leaving the weakest link untouched as enforcement of the verification deadline begins in 2026.
Its fill: Consolidation of AML/KYC supervision into a single (or few) statutory supervisor(s) with direct powers over ACSPs; published register-cleanup and prosecution metrics; and a ring-fenced multi-year enforcement budget from incorporation fees. Responsible: HM Treasury and DBT; committee interest: Treasury Committee, Business and Trade Committee.