The short answer
A UK accountancy practice website needs two kinds of content. Lines set by law, including the registered company details and the indemnity insurer's contact details, go into every brief as fixed wording. Pages set by choice, starting with one page for each service line the practice wants more of, are where a website agency should earn its fee. Name who updates the fixed lines when they change.
Key takeaways
- A limited company's website must show its registered name, number, office address and the part of the UK it is registered in.
- The practice's professional body and its indemnity insurer's contact details must be available to clients, and a website footer is the simplest place.
- Since 5 February 2026, analytics cookies need no consent if visitors can object. Advertising tags still need it.
- The fixed lines go out of date on dates the web agency never sees, so the brief names who updates them.
- The commercial pages are the agency's real job, and they start with one page per service line.
Search for what an accountancy practice website should include and the first page is written by people who build them. Xero's guide and the supplier checklists beneath it agree on service pages, a team page, contact details and a privacy policy. Few mention that part of the page is not the practice's to design.
Regulations 24 and 25 of the 2015 trading disclosure regulations require a company's websites to show four particulars: its registered name, registered number, registered office address and the part of the United Kingdom it is registered in. The Provision of Services Regulations 2009 add the practice's professional body and its indemnity insurer's contact details. None of those lines is a design decision, and two of them change on a schedule the web agency never sees.
Which parts of the website does the law decide?
Seven lines on an accountancy practice website are decided by a rule rather than a designer, though not every rule applies to every practice. The map below gives each line, when it applies and what makes it go out of date. That last column is the one no supplier checklist carries.
| Line | Applies when | Rule | Goes stale when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Registered name, number, office address and where it is registered | The practice trades as a limited company | 2015 trading disclosure regulations, 24 and 25 | The registered office moves |
| Professional body and professional title | Always, for a regulated profession | Provision of Services Regulations 2009, 8(1)(h) | A principal joins from another body |
| Indemnity insurer's contact details and territorial coverage | Professional indemnity cover is compulsory | Provision of Services Regulations 2009, 8(1)(n) | The practice changes insurer at renewal |
| Audit registration wording and register reference | The firm is a registered auditor | Suggested audit wording | Registration changes or lapses |
| The “Chartered Accountants” description | The firm meets the eligibility rules | Use of description regulations | A non-member becomes a principal |
| Privacy information beside the enquiry form | The site collects personal data | Right to be informed guidance | A new form or processor is added |
| Cookie information, and consent where needed | The site sets cookies or similar | PECR, storage and access guidance | The agency adds a tag for a campaign |
Two lines catch partners out. The ICAEW's audit registration wording is suggested rather than mandatory, but the Provision of Services rules still expect a client to be able to find the firm on the audit register. And the “Chartered Accountants” description depends on who the principals are today, not on the practice's history. Bringing in a partner who is not a chartered accountant can change what the homepage is allowed to say.
Which lines go out of date without anyone noticing?
The insurer line is the easiest to get wrong, because it changes at renewal and nobody tells the web agency. A practice that moves its professional indemnity cover has a new insurer name and address to publish. The footer keeps the old one until someone edits it.
The same happens when the registered office moves, and when a marketing supplier adds a tracking tag for a campaign without updating the cookie information. None of these events touches the website team's calendar. The fix is one line in the contract: the person at the practice who tells the agency when a fixed line changes, and the number of working days the agency has to update it.
What has changed about cookie banners?
Since 5 February 2026, analytics cookies need no consent, provided visitors are told about them and given a simple, free way to object. The change came from the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025, and the ICO's guidance on the exceptions sets the conditions. The analytics must exist only to improve the site, and any analytics provider must act as the practice's processor rather than a joint controller.
The exception stops at advertising. The guidance says it does not apply to purposes related to online advertising, so a Google Ads conversion tag still needs consent. A practice deciding whether SEO or Google Ads suits each service line should count the banner, and the visitors who decline it, as part of the paid route's cost.
Before you brief an agency
Send us the brief, fixed lines included.
Tell us what the practice needs the website to do. We will introduce one vetted specialist who will build it to that brief.
Get a recommendationWhat should the commercial pages do?
One page for each service line the practice wants more of is the core of the commercial side, and everything else serves those pages. A single services page listing tax, payroll, audit and advisory cannot rank for any of them. Nor can it answer the question a prospect is really asking, which is whether this practice does this work for firms like theirs.
A separate page per service line lets the practice say who the work is for and which partner leads it. Those pages are also what an AI assistant quotes when a business owner asks for an accountant, so whether ChatGPT can recommend the practice depends on them too.
Which service lines get a page of their own
Partners decide
The agency cannot choose which work the practice wants more of.
How fees are described on each service page
Partners decide
A fixed fee or a quote on request is a commercial position, not a copy choice.
Page layout and the design of the enquiry form
Agency proposes
This is the work the fee pays for, so hold the agency to a reason for each choice.
Where each statutory line sits on the page
Agency places, practice checks
The footer is usual. The wording is fixed and the practice signs it off.
Who updates a statutory line, and within how many working days
In the contract
The events that change these lines never reach the agency's calendar on their own.
The cost of those pages is set out in what an accountancy practice website should cost, where partner review of each service page is priced as a line of its own.
When should a practice not rebuild its website yet?
If the only gap is a missing statutory line, fix the footer, not the website. Adding a registered number or an insurer's address is a short edit on most sites. A rebuild commissioned to fix it buys months of disruption for a problem that takes an afternoon.
Wait, too, if the partners have not agreed which accountancy work the practice wants more of. A brief without that answer produces equal pages for every service, and none of them earns its place. Where a merger or a move to new practice software is due within the year, brief the fixed lines now and the commercial pages after, because both events change what those pages have to say.
Frequently asked questions
What partners ask about website contents.
What company details must a UK accountancy practice show on its website?
A practice that trades as a company must show its registered name, registered number, registered office address and the part of the United Kingdom it is registered in. The rules are regulations 24 and 25 of the 2015 trading disclosure regulations.
Does the website have to show professional indemnity insurance details?
The Provision of Services Regulations 2009 require the practice to make its insurer's contact details and the policy's territorial coverage available to clients. A website is one of four permitted routes, and the one that reaches a prospect before any engagement letter.
Can the practice call itself Chartered Accountants on its website?
Only if it meets the ICAEW regulations on the description. A principal who is not a chartered accountant must hold affiliate status with the institute, so a change of partners can change what the homepage is allowed to say.
Does an accountancy practice website still need a cookie banner?
Not for analytics used only to improve the site, since 5 February 2026, provided visitors are told and can object for free. Any advertising tag, including a Google Ads conversion tag, still needs consent, so a practice running paid search keeps a banner.
Does the enquiry form need a privacy notice?
Yes. A form collects personal data, so data protection law requires the practice to tell people how it will use that data at the point of collection. The regulator's guidance on the right to be informed sets out what the notice must contain.
Sources and useful reading
- The Company, Limited Liability Partnership and Business (Names and Trading Disclosures) Regulations 2015, regulations 24 and 25, read 24 September 2026.
- The Provision of Services Regulations 2009, regulation 8, read 24 September 2026.
- icaew.com, practice names and letterheads helpsheet, read 24 September 2026.
- icaew.com, use of the “Chartered Accountants” description, read 24 September 2026.
- ico.org.uk, guidance on the use of storage and access technologies, the exceptions, read 24 September 2026.
- ico.org.uk, the right to be informed, read 24 September 2026.
- Xero, building an effective website for an accounting firm, read 24 September 2026.
This article is commercial decision support, not legal or regulatory advice. Check the current rules with the practice's professional body before relying on any line above.