Company law – draft updated statutory guidance on the PSC regime

The government has published draft updated statutory guidance on the meaning of “significant influence or control” over companies in the context of the regime for people with significant control (PSCs).

Under the PSC regime, a person will be determined to have control over a company if they satisfy one (or more) of five statutory tests set out in the Companies Act 2006 – the first of which is having a direct or indirect 25%+ shareholding. The fourth and fifth conditions apply where a person has, or exercises, significant influence or control over the company and, under the Companies Act, the government is required to produce statutory guidance on the meaning of significant influence or control.

The current version of the statutory guidance was published in June 2017 and the updates to the guidance are mostly to reflect the recent changes to the PSC regime – in particular the abolition of the requirement for companies to maintain a PSC register – made by the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 with effect from 18 November 2025 (see our blog post here).

The draft guidance will be adopted as the new statutory guidance, in place of the June 2017 guidance, if neither House of Parliament objects within 40 days of the guidance being laid in draft.