on the role of Registrar of Companies for Scotland. 20th century In 1982 the post of Q&LTR was transferred to the Crown Agent, and the staff and functions relating to company registration in Scotland were transferred to the Department of Trade and Industry on 1 April 1981. In October 1988, Companies House became an executive agency of the Department of Trade and Industry, and then in October 1991 started to operate as a trading fund, self-financing by retaining income from charges. 21st century Companies Act 2006 When the Companies Act 2006 was fully implemented on 1 October 2009, the Northern Ireland companies register was fully integrated into Companies House; previously, all limited companies in Northern Ireland were registered with the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment. As government departments were reorganised, Companies House came under the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (2007), the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (2009), and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (2016). Companies House was a member of the Public Data Group, an advisory board which between 2011 and 2015 sought to improve public access to government data. Companies House is also responsible for dissolving companies. In 2020, there were approximately 4.3 million businesses on the Companies House register. In the same year Companies House ceased to operate as a trading fund. Response to 2020 pandemic In view of the coronavirus pandemic, from 25 March 2020 companies were able to apply for a three-month extension to the annual deadline for filing their accounts and reports. The Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act 2020 made this extension automatic for filing deadlines between 27 June 2020 and 5 April 2021; after the latter date, companies could again apply for a three-month extension. There were also temporary extensions to the deadlines for filing confirmation statements and certain event-driven filings. Registrars of Companies The role of Registrar of Companies is not a political one, and the incumbent is a civil servant. England and Wales The Registrar of Companies for England and Wales is based at Companies House, Cardiff, and is responsible for the registration of companies in England and Wales. Until 2011 there was another Companies House office in Nantgarw, Wales. The London office of Companies House, located at Petty France, is purely a facility to file and view documents, which are then processed in Cardiff. The current registrar is Louise Smyth, who also serves