Mutual societies registration function: 2025/26

• We have taken practical steps to support growth and reduce barriers to entry for new and existing societies.
• Our engagement has strengthened collaboration across the sector, bringing stakeholders together to inform our work and priorities.
• Compliance and oversight remain central to our role; we continue to work with societies to improve compliance with mutuals legislation.

To support long-term and sustainable growth in the sector, we now provide dedicated support to societies.

The MSDU is a central hub of expertise and insight, providing a free pre-application support service to assist with the development of new societies and help existing societies innovate. During the coming year, the development unit will engage further with stakeholders convening events to explore opportunities for growth.

In December 2025 we reduced the time it takes to register a new society by 33%, from 15 to 10 days. We will formally report on this from April 2026. This is for applications using model rules submitted through the Mutuals Society Portal. By submitting via the portal, societies can take advantage of easier submission and faster processing times, in line with our Smarter Regulator and Supporting Growth strategic themes. Our strategy 2025 to 2030 (PDF).

To help support growth, in September 2025, we consulted on removing most statutory declarations from mutuals registration function forms.

Societies now no longer need statutory declarations for applications where they are not required by law. This change has saved time and reduced costs for all societies.

We engaged extensively with the sector during the year, including to help the development of the reports outlined above.

Some key events attended were:

In addition to our regular roundtables with sponsoring bodies (PDF) in October 2025 and February 2026, we also:

• Hosted a cross-sector roundtable in July 2025 with representation from government, regulators, and across industry to discuss ways we could help support the growth of the sector.
• Hosted a Friendly Societies Roundtable event to facilitate conversations between societies registered under Friendly Societies legislation and the Law Commission as part of the latter’s review of the Friendly Societies Act(s).
• Spoke at a range of conferences and took part in panel sessions , attending in excess of 15 throughout the year, including those hosted by Co-operatives UK, the Building Societies Association, and the Association of Financial Mutuals, in addition to attending events, including credit union conferences, and the Democratic Business event on Social Clubs and in Belfast at Stormont.

We engaged internationally, with the mutuals sectors in Germany, the United States, and Australia. This provided insight into how the mutual sector has developed in other countries and how we may be able to further support growth in the sector.  We also hosted a delegation from Kenya on credit unions and contributed to an international event on co-operative law in The Hague.

We provided updates throughout the year covering recent changes to policy, legislation and process and other information so that societies, whether new or more established, remain supported.

Modern, up-to-date legislation is important to support the sector and its growth. We have engaged extensively in the reviews by the Law Commission of the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014, and the Friendly Societies Acts 1974 and 1992. We are committed to supporting the development of legislation that follows.

In response to the Law Commission consultation seeking views on the law relating to friendly societies, which closed in June 2025, we explained that there is benefit in the ultimate repeal of the Friendly Societies Act 1974. This is providing that societies have an appropriate period to convert to other types of legal entity. If that occurs, we will provide information or guidance to help societies through that process.

In Chapter 4 of the Mutuals Registering Authority Report we set out the challenges faced by credit unions which are subject to both the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014 and the Credit Unions Act 1979. This results in a high degree of complexity and associated costs for credit unions in applying the correct law. Credit union legislation is also more restrictive than other mutuals legislation, which further limits activities that they can carry out. We continue to recommend a review and reform of the Credit Unions Act 1979 to support the sector and will further engage with the Treasury.

Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014:

*This refers to societies registered before the commencement of the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014 on 1 August 2014, referred to in legislation as a 'pre-commencement society'.

Friendly Societies Act 1974:

Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act (Northern Ireland) 1969:

*This refers to societies registered before the commencement of section 8 of the Credit Unions and Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act (Northern Ireland) 2016 on 6 April 2018, referred to in legislation as a 'pre-2016 Act society'.

This year, for the first time, we have compiled taxonomic information about the types of co-operatives we register (consumer/user, worker, multi-stakeholder, producer). This provides us with valuable insight into the sector and provides a more accurate picture to monitor growth in the co-operative sector. This data is also now being published on the Mutuals Public Register.

The glossary on the Mutuals Public Register describes each category.

*This information only applies to co-operative societies. This means they are registered as a co-operative or they are a pre commencement society meeting the cooperative condition.

Throughout the year, we registered 311 new societies and deregistered 211 societies.

New registrations:

Of the new registrations, 17 followed a company converting to a society. 

Deregistrations:

Summary of registrations and deregistrations over previous years:

We made decisions on 4,034 applications during 2025/26. This represents an 11% increase in applications on the previous year.

We set a voluntary service standard to make a decision on at least 90% of complete applications within 15 working days. During this period, we made decisions on 96.95% of complete applications within 15 working days.

Operating service metrics: