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Every PLC that’s failed to file accounts on time

AccountsCompanies House
August 10, 2024

9 Comments

This page contains an automatically-updated list of every public limited company that’s missed the deadline for filing its statutory accounts. Listed companies are highlighted in yellow; FCA regulated companies in red.

You can click on each column to sort it, and click on a company name to jump to its Companies House entry.

Note that some of the companies may have filed a few days before the deadline, but Companies House hasn’t yet processed the accounts.

We publish a separate list of PLCs that failed to file their confirmation statement on time.

The list is generated by a script that runs at 2am every Monday morning.

The code is available on our GitHub. Thanks to M for original idea and original coding, and to Companies House for the API which enables all this.

Image by DALL-E 2: “a late alarm clock”.

Tax Policy Associates provides this list as a useful tool but accepts no responsibility for any errors; if a company’s filings are important to you, please check directly with Companies House.

Footnotes

  1. Companies House’s penalties for late filing are pretty hefty for a small business, but utterly irrelevant for a large company. In theory failure to file is a criminal offence, but it’s very rarely prosecuted. ↩︎

  2. Most PLCs aren’t listed. So why become a PLC? Perhaps because you’re planning to get a listing at some point. Perhaps you want to offer securities to some of the public, without a listing. Perhaps you just like the cachet of having “PLC” in your name. But it comes with a somewhat higher level of compliance obligations. ↩︎

  3. That’s a particular problem for companies who file paper accounts; for some large companies this is unavoidable, because Companies House’s systems won’t accept their accounts in electronic form. And this gets worse around year end/Christmas. However any company that files close to the deadline is asking for trouble; it’s notable that well run companies don’t do this, and to our knowledge no FTSE 100 company has ever been late filing its accounts. ↩︎

  4. The companies that are many years in default are strange “zombies” which were dissolved, and then restored to the register – I don’t know what’s going on there. ↩︎

  5. But occasionally more frequently ↩︎

9 responses to “Every PLC that’s failed to file accounts on time”

  1. H avatar
    H

    I understand that a company or individual can request an order the court for a company to be reinstated to the register ( outside the statutory time limit) if they are being sued for personal injury ( such as industrial deafness..)

    Reply
  2. J avatar
    J

    Vulcan Industries plc (11640409) is listed on AQSE. It was incorporated 24 Oct 2018 and has been late filing its accounts every year of its existence. The next accounts are due 30 Sep 2024…

    Reply
  3. Richard Hilton avatar
    Richard Hilton

    I’ve been doing some research on a particular sector and came across a Company that has had no directors / officers since 31st December 2023!

    How is it that Companies House allow this to happen?

    By the way, Rush FM Limited, Company number 10902229, is the company in question.

    Are you able to run a programme that pulls out companies that have no directors? I’d be fascinated to know how common this is.

    Thanks as always.

    Reply
  4. Peter Horner avatar
    Peter Horner

    Can you indicate or suggest why the ones at the bottom of the list ( e.g. James Balfour plc) haven’t been struck off, given they are decades late?

    Reply
    1. Dan avatar
      Dan

      I’m not sure – they were wound up, and then restored to the register for some reason. I don’t know why. I would exclude them if there was a clear basis for doing so, but I’m reluctant to just delete companies.

      Reply
      1. Richard Smith avatar
        Richard Smith

        Sometimes company creditors show up years after the company was liquidated & dissolved, but are still keen to try and recover something. The company has to be put back on the register so that the creditor can sue it. Details https://www.gov.uk/claiming-money-or-property-from-dissolved-company/restore-company-court-order. Litigation happens verrry slooowly, as you can see, Bleak House style.

        Reply
  5. Dan avatar
    Dan

    Thanks – great suggestion… listed companies are now highlighted in yellow

    Reply
  6. James Mansell avatar
    James Mansell

    Dan,

    A couple of things it might be helpful to be aware of.
    1. For a main market listed company under 4.1.3R they have to file their accounts within 4 months of year end with the national storage mechanism. If they don’t then their shares are normally suspended from trading which would be a huge issue. So it’s very difficult to have a big company that misses 6 month deadline.

    2. It would be interestingly to see how many of these companies have shares that are listed a few are AIM companies that do have shares suspended, as this happens at 6 months, ADM energy is one such company I recognise from your list.

    Reply
    1. J avatar
      J

      Vulcan Industries plc (11640409) has never filed its annual accounts on time since it was incorporated in 2018

      Today, 26 Sep 24, it announced that it will be late filing its accounts for the year ended 31 Mar 2024 and that is shares will (again) be suspended (it trades on AQSE) on 1 Oct 24

      https://www.voxmarkets.co.uk/xsrns/9ba9b5df-720c-4b28-a48a-02492708f28f

      Reply

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