Last Updated on July 1, 2026 by Joy Kyalo
A PSC is a Person with Significant Control, the individual or entity that actually owns or runs the company, regardless of what the paperwork on the surface suggests. If you’re forming a UK company or checking your compliance position, you need to know who this is and why Companies House cares.
Every company should review its PSC position whenever ownership, voting rights, or control arrangements change.
Quick Answer
A Person with Significant Control (PSC) is an individual or legal entity that owns or controls a UK company. In most cases, a PSC owns more than 25% of the shares or voting rights, can appoint or remove most directors, or has significant influence over the company’s decisions. Most UK limited companies must identify and report their PSCs to Companies House.
Key Takeaways
- A PSC is someone who owns or controls a UK company.
- Most companies must keep a PSC register and report PSC details to Companies House.
- Owning more than 25% of the shares usually makes someone a PSC.
- A person can still be a PSC without owning shares if they control the company.
What is a PSC?
A PSC is whoever has real influence over how a company is run. The regime exists so ownership can’t hide behind nominee directors, layered shareholdings, or an overseas parent that never shows up on the public record.
Most UK limited companies and LLPs have to identify their PSCs, keep a register, and file that information with Companies House, and that’s true even when the structure looks simple. You still have to check.
Who counts as a PSC?
Someone qualifies if they meet one of five tests. The two that catch most companies are owning more than 25% of the shares, or controlling more than 25% of the voting rights.
But the other three come up more often than people expect. A person can be a PSC by holding the right to appoint or remove a majority of the board, or simply by exercising significant influence or control without hitting any ownership threshold at all. And where a trust or firm controls the company, whoever actually runs that trust or firm may be the PSC, even though the trust itself isn’t a legal person.
A cap table won’t give you the full picture here. Someone with 20% of the shares might still control every major decision through a shareholders’ agreement, while someone with no shares might control the company entirely through a trust.
Who Qualifies as a PSC?
| Situation | PSC? |
|---|---|
| Owns more than 25% of the shares | Yes |
| Controls more than 25% of the voting rights | Yes |
| Can appoint or remove most directors | Yes |
| Exercises significant influence or control | Yes |
| Owns 10% of shares with no control rights | Usually No |
The five conditions
A PSC is someone who:
- owns more than 25% of the shares
- controls more than 25% of the voting rights
- can appoint or remove most of the directors
- exercises (or has the right to exercise) significant influence or control
- controls a trust or firm that itself controls the company
Small companies usually only need to think about the first two. Joint ventures, family companies, and anything with cross-border ownership need all five worked through properly.
What is a PSC register?
It’s the company’s own record of who has significant control, and it’s kept separately from the shareholder list because the two don’t always line up. Companies must keep this updated and file the relevant details with Companies House. If there’s genuinely no PSC, or you’re still working it out, that gets recorded properly too rather than left blank.
This isn’t a form you file once. Change the voting rights, restructure the group, or amend a shareholders’ agreement, and the PSC position can shift along with it.
What details get recorded?
For an individual, you’ll need their name, date of birth, nationality, country of residence, service address, residential address, the date they became a PSC, and the nature of their control. Not all of it shows up publicly, but the company still has to hold it.
If the controlling party is a relevant legal entity rather than a person, the focus shifts to corporate details instead, things like registered office and legal form. Get the dates or control descriptions wrong and you risk filing problems, plus awkward questions from banks or advisers down the line.
PSC Information Required by Companies House:
| Information | Required? |
|---|---|
| Full name | Yes |
| Date of birth | Yes |
| Nationality | Yes |
| Service address | Yes |
| Date PSC status began | Yes |
| Nature of control | Yes |
When do you need to check your PSC position?
At incorporation, and then again whenever something changes. New shares, share transfers, amended voting rights, a group restructure, a new holding company, an investor who picks up disproportionate rights, any of these can shift who counts as a PSC.
The usual failure point is speed. The company forms, the bank account opens, trading starts, and the register gets treated as something you tick off once and forget. It needs revisiting every time ownership or control actually moves.
What if no one owns more than 25%?
That doesn’t mean there’s no PSC. Check the voting rights, board appointment rights, and any side agreements that might hand someone effective control without crossing the ownership line. A 20% shareholder with the right contractual terms can still be a PSC, and so can a founder who’s diluted below 25% but kept hold of control rights.
Some companies genuinely have no PSC, and that’s fine, but you still have to investigate properly and record that conclusion rather than just assume it.
PSCs and relevant legal entities
Sometimes the controlling party is another company rather than a person. You then need to identify a relevant legal entity, or RLE, somewhere in the chain, possibly instead of an individual or before one. This gets complicated fast in international structures: a UK subsidiary with an overseas parent needs a proper control analysis before anyone knows what actually belongs on the register.
Why PSC compliance matters
Banks, payment providers, investors, solicitors, accountants, landlords, and counterparties all check Companies House records, and a PSC register that’s missing, inconsistent, or stale slows down onboarding and raises governance questions nobody wants raised.
There’s a legal side too. Companies and officers can face consequences for failing to maintain the register or for filing inaccurate information, even when the original error was a genuine oversight.
What Happens If You Do Not Maintain a PSC Register?
Companies that fail to maintain an accurate PSC register or submit the required information to Companies House may face penalties, delays during compliance checks, and difficulties opening business bank accounts or working with regulated organisations. Keeping the register up to date helps avoid unnecessary administrative issues.
Common mistakes companies make
The first is assuming PSC status equals shareholder status. It often overlaps, but not always.
The second is failing to review the register after a funding round or restructure. A new investor might not take a majority stake but could still gain rights that change who’s actually in control.
The third is treating complex ownership chains casually, when parent companies, trusts, overseas holding structures, and nominee arrangements all need real analysis rather than a guess.
The fourth is delay. A company knows a change happened and just puts off updating the record, which almost always turns into a bigger problem than the original change would have been.
What founders and directors should do next
If you’re forming a company, work out the PSC position from day one and file it correctly. If the company already exists, check whether the register still matches reality. For a simple structure that’s quick work; with multiple shareholders, investor rights, or international entities involved, it’s worth taking the time, because untangling errors later costs far more than getting it right now.
For businesses that want formation, statutory administration, and registered office support handled together, BusinAssist sets all of it up in one go.
A PSC is the person or entity actually in control of your company. If banking readiness and credibility matter to you, get that identified properly from the start, not as an afterthought.
FAQs:
Q: What is a Person with Significant Control (PSC)?
Ans: A Person with Significant Control (PSC) is an individual or legal entity that owns or controls a UK company. Most limited companies must identify their PSCs and report the required information to Companies House.
Q: Who qualifies as a PSC?
Ans: A person usually qualifies as a PSC if they own more than 25% of the company’s shares or voting rights, can appoint or remove most directors, or have significant influence or control over the business.
Q: Can a company have more than one PSC?
Ans: Yes. A company can have multiple PSCs if more than one person or legal entity meets the Companies House conditions for significant control.
Q: Can someone be a PSC without owning shares?
Ans: Yes. Share ownership isn’t the only test. A person may still be a PSC if they have the right to appoint or remove most directors or exercise significant influence or control over the company.
Q: Do all UK companies need a PSC register?
Ans: Most UK limited companies and LLPs must keep a PSC register. If no one qualifies as a PSC, the company must still record that conclusion and keep the register up to date.
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The BusinAssist Editorial Team has 15+ years of experience writing about small business and company formation in the UK, Canada, and the USA. We simplify complex processes and provide practical insights to help entrepreneurs succeed. Business Assist with BusinAssist – your partner for business success.