Guidance

Guidance for the Companies House extractives service

Updated 25 March 2021

1. Introduction

Companies House considers undertakings to be non-registered entities, as well as companies, as set out in The Reports on Payments to Governments Regulations 2014.

The extractives filing service is designed to help undertakings to meet their obligations to deliver reports to the registrar under these regulations.

These Regulations require large undertakings operating in the extractives industries (defined in a schedule to the Regulations) to disclose payments they have made to governments.

The Reports on Payments to Governments Regulations 2014 defines ‘government’ as any national, regional or local authority of a country, and includes a department, agency or undertaking that is a subsidiary undertaking where the authority is the parent undertaking.

2. Definition of a large undertaking

A large undertaking is one which meets two of the following three conditions:

• a balance sheet total on its balance sheet date is greater than £18 million
• a net turnover on its balance sheet date is greater than £36 million
• an average number of employees during the financial year to which the report relates is greater than 250.

An undertaking which has subsidiaries may produce a consolidated report, including payments to governments made by the subsidiary undertakings and the directors of the subsidiaries may be exempt from preparing their own report.

3. The period a report should cover

A report should cover an undertaking’s financial year. For undertakings which are partnerships or limited partnerships, the financial year is the 12 calendar months ending on 5 April.

4. Responsibility for filing report

The directors of any undertaking which is large or a public interest entity and is a mining or quarrying or a logging undertaking are responsible for completing and filing the report.

5. Technical advice

The registrar can only give general guidance, not technical advice on specific filing or legal issues. The filing of reports on payments to governments is subject to legal requirements and undertakings may wish to seek advice from specialists.

6. Filing deadline

An undertaking must file a report within 11 months of the end of its financial year (accounting reference date).

7. Changes to the accounting reference date

For any undertaking, the end of its financial year (accounting reference date) is the end of its reporting period. Any changes to the length of the financial year will change the length of the reporting period.

For undertakings which are partnerships or limited partnerships, the financial year is fixed as the 12 months up to 5 April.

8. Reports filed late or containing incorrect information

The registrar will issue a notice on receipt of a valid complaint that an undertaking has not delivered a report which it should have delivered under the regulations, or does not meet the requirements of the regulations.

9. Signing the report

All reports must be delivered electronically and they must be authenticated by the undertaking’s authentication code. Any undertaking which does not have an authentication code can apply to Companies House for one. Reports need not be physically signed.

10. Identifying the undertakings report

All undertakings must show their name on the face of a report. Where an undertaking is registered, it must also show its registered number.

11. Reports that are rejected

If a report does not meet the specified requirements, it will be returned for correction, with an indication of the areas which need amendment.

12. Language of the report

Where a report is prepared in a language other than English, it must be filed with a certified translation into English. Where this applies to notes to the schema specified by the registrar, the English translation may appear in the same box as the original language.

13. Submitting the report to Companies House

All undertakings must submit reports electronically and must use the schema specified by the registrar.