There is no automatic late filing penalty for a confirmation statement. The £150-to-£1,500 scale that so much published guidance quotes — that is the private company and LLP scale, and public companies run from £750 to £7,500 — belongs to a different filing entirely: it applies to accounts, and only to accounts.
That is not good news. The accounts penalty is fixed, automatic and finite. What you get for a late confirmation statement is open-ended: a financial penalty that can repeat daily, strike-off action, and a criminal offence committed by the company and every officer in default.
What does not happen
Companies House late filing penalties are for accounts. They start at £150 for a private company up to a month late and reach £1,500 beyond six months, and they double if you file late in two successive financial years. None of that applies to a confirmation statement. If you have read that your overdue CS01 triggered a £150 penalty, that guidance is wrong — check whether the notice relates to accounts instead.
What does happen
1. A warning notice — and a 28-day escape hatch
Since the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 (Financial Penalty) Regulations 2024 took effect on 2 May 2024, the Registrar of Companies can impose a financial penalty where satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that a relevant offence under section 1132A of the Companies Act 2006 has been committed.
It starts with a warning notice in writing, setting out the grounds for suspecting an offence and giving you at least 28 days beginning the day after the notice date to make written representations.
This is the part worth acting on. If you take the required action within those 28 days, you will not receive a financial penalty. Companies House gives the confirmation statement as its own worked example: file the statement within 28 days of the warning notice date and no penalty follows. You can also email a representation — anything you want the registrar to consider — inside the same window.
2. A financial penalty
Miss the window and the registrar may issue a penalty notice. The amount turns on the seriousness of the offence and how many times you or the company has committed the same or a similar offence in the last 5 years.
| Seriousness | First offence | Second | Third | Fourth or more |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Minor | £250 | £500 | £750 | £1,000 |
| Serious | £500 | £750 | £1,000 | £1,500 |
| Very serious | £750 | £1,000 | £1,500 | £2,000 |
Seriousness maps to the standard scale of fines for summary offences — level 3 is minor, level 5 serious, ‘either way’ or imprisonable offences very serious. Companies House also weighs culpability, harm, aggravating and mitigating factors, and your representations.
3. Daily rate penalties
A penalty can be fixed, daily rate, or both — and it does not end with one notice. Companies House states the position plainly: if you receive a penalty for failing to file your confirmation statement, you may receive a new penalty for each day it remains unfiled.
Payment is due in full by the date on the notice, which cannot be sooner than 28 days after it is given. Unpaid, the registrar may pursue the debt through a debt recovery agency or the court. Appealing is narrow: you need the permission of the court to appeal to the County Court, or the Sheriff Court in Scotland, and only on the grounds that the decision was unlawful, irrational or unreasonable, or procedurally improper.
4. Strike-off action
The registrar may start striking the company off the register where there is reasonable cause to believe it is not carrying on business or in operation. Not receiving the annual documents a company should send — its confirmation statement or accounts — is one of the triggers Companies House names.
The registrar tries to make contact first. If the company does not respond, a notice goes in the relevant Gazette, and absent a reason not to, the company is struck off not less than 2 months later and dissolved on publication of a further notice. At dissolution the bank account is frozen and everything the company owns passes to the Crown.
5. A criminal offence
Under section 853L of the Companies Act 2006, failing to deliver a confirmation statement within 14 days of the end of a review period is an offence committed by the company and every officer in default. A shadow director counts as a director.
It is triable summarily: in England and Wales a fine, with a daily default fine for continued contravention not exceeding the greater of £500 and one-tenth of level 4 on the standard scale; in Scotland and Northern Ireland a fine up to level 5. Companies House puts the exposure at up to £5,000, and criminal proceedings are separate from and additional to any financial penalty against the company.
Section 853L(3) matters for the fix: the contravention continues until a confirmation statement specifying a confirmation date no later than the last day of the review period is delivered.
The clock does not stop
Missing a statement pauses nothing. Under s853A(5), each review period is 12 months beginning the day after the previous one ends — whether or not you filed. Skip two years and you have two overdue review periods, not one long one.
How to fix it
- Verify every director first. Companies House will not accept the statement until all directors have verified their identity and you hold a Companies House personal code for each. Start here — it is the step with a lead time.
- Check the register and file any changes to directors, secretary, PSCs, registered office or registered email address separately, first. Those cannot go on the statement.
- Use the overdue confirmation date, not today’s. It must be no later than the last day of the review period concerned (s853A(4)). A statement dated today does not cure an earlier missed period.
- File one statement for each missed review period, oldest first.
- Expect one £50 fee per 12-month payment period. The fee is payable once per payment period, not per filing — so catching up across two payment periods costs it twice.
- If the company has already been struck off, you cannot file online. Administrative restoration uses paper form RT01 and costs £341, and any outstanding accounts and confirmation statements go in with it — on paper, using the confirmation date that was due before the strike-off.
Dormant companies get no exemption
Every company must file a confirmation statement at least once every 12 months, including dormant and non-trading companies. Same fee, same deadline, same consequences. Companies House also lists “the company is dormant” among the reasons an appeal against a late filing penalty is unlikely to succeed.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a late filing penalty for a confirmation statement?
Not the automatic penalty that applies to accounts — that one applies only to accounts. Instead the registrar can issue a financial penalty after a warning notice, take strike-off action, and prosecute. Failing to file is a criminal offence for the company and every officer in default.
How do I avoid a penalty once I have had a warning notice?
Take the required action within 28 days beginning the day after the date on the warning notice. Companies House says that if you file the overdue confirmation statement inside that window, you will not receive a financial penalty.
How much is the fine for a late confirmation statement?
A financial penalty runs from £250 to £2,000 depending on the seriousness of the offence and how many times the same offence has been committed in the last 5 years, and it can be charged again for each day the statement stays unfiled. Separately, the criminal offence under section 853L carries a fine that Companies House puts at up to £5,000.
Can I file an overdue confirmation statement with today’s date?
No. The confirmation date must be no later than the last day of the review period concerned, so an overdue statement has to carry the date that was due. If you have missed more than one review period, file a statement for each of them.
What happens if my company was struck off for not filing?
The company is dissolved, its bank account is frozen and its assets pass to the Crown. You may be able to apply for administrative restoration using paper form RT01 at a cost of £341, sending in any outstanding accounts and confirmation statements at the same time.
Clearing it
An overdue confirmation statement is usually fixable without a penalty — but only if you act inside the 28 days the warning notice gives you, and only once every director holds a verified personal code.
SmartFiling clears overdue Companies House filings on a fixed fee, including back-year confirmation statements and the director identity verification details that now travel with them. Every filing is reviewed and signed off by an ICAEW Chartered Accountant, and it is all done online.
