The UK government made an announcement on 31 July 2020 (today) to tackle the local COVID-19 outbreak in Greater Manchester, Lancashire and West Yorkshire and to respond accordingly to stop the spread of the virus.
Local outbreaks
- Greater Manchester:
- City of Manchester
- Trafford
- Stockport
- Oldham
- Bury
- Wigan
- Bolton
- Tameside
- Rochdale
- Salford
- Lancashire:
- Blackburn with Darwen
- Burnley
- Hyndburn
- Pendle
- Rossendale
- West Yorkshire:
- Bradford
- Calderdale
- Kirklees
These areas must follow strict social contact guideline and some businesses must close. Read the guidance here.
The UK government announcement on 31 July 2020 also includes extending the list of places where people must wear face-covering list from 8 August 2020. At the same time, plans for clinically extremely vulnerable people, businesses involve close contact with customers and so on were also announced.
Great news. Luton and Leicester outbreaks were brought under control and some businesses in the areas are allowed to reopen from 3 August 2020.
Read the full announcement here
Companies House filings during COVID-19 pandemic
Companies House also gear up to support UK businesses during COVID-19 pandemic. They automatically extend your company’s filing deadline. This will help your company to avoid a late filing penalty if you are unable to deliver your company accounts on time. You do not need to do anything. You just need to go to Companies House website to check your new filing deadline.
Concurrently, your confirmation statement filing deadline will also be extended. You would have 6 weeks to file your confirmation statement. Similarly, for the events driven filings, you will have 42 days (6 weeks) to notify Companies House instead of the usual 14 days filing deadline.
In addition, Companies House also created an interim paperless filing service to accept documents which would normally require a live signature.
You are encouraged to file your company documents to Companies House digitally. You can use the web filing service to submit the following documents to Companies House.
- Confirmation statement
- Company accounts
- Events driven filings using Companies House forms i.e director resigned or change of your registered office address.
- Closing down your company.
To file online, you would require your company’s authentication code. The authentication code is the electronic equivalent of your company’s director(s) signatures. Keep safe your authentication code.
If you require help with your company’s filings, contact Our accountants. They will be more than happy to assist you.
