Companies Act 2006

Summary of the new Companies Act 2006

A new companies act was introduced in 2006, that became fully operational on the 1st October 2009. The full act of parliament is over 700 pages long, so we have decided to try to highlight some of the key points / changes for quick reference.

General

* Private limited companies no longer need to have a company secretary.

* Private limited companies are no longer required to have an annual general meeting. * There are new standard company constitution documents.

* Companies are no longer required to specify their objects on

incorporation.

Company Directors

* Director's general duties have been formally codified in law.

* Company Directors are no longer required to publish their

residential address for all to see. They may opt to provide an

additional service address for correspondence, which can be the

same as their company's registered office address. A residential address must still be given to

companies house, but this will only be shared with selected 3rd parties (certain public bodies,

and credit reference agencies).

* Company Directors must now be atleast 16 years old.

Accounts and Reports

* The statements that appear on a company's accounts have changed.

* The accounts filing deadline has been reduced from 10 months to 9 months for private

companies, and 7 months to 6 months for PLCs.

Members / Shareholders

* Companies are able to make better use of electronic communication to communicate with

shareholders.

* It's no longer as easy for external parties to demand to see a company's list of shareholders.

Interested parties must declare their name, address, and the purpose of their request. It must

be for a "proper" purpose - whatever that means! A company can apply to a court to reject

the request.

Forms

* Lots of the companies house forms have been redesigned / renamed with much more logical

names. Rather than being named after the section of the companies house act that describes

them, they are named after their purpose. For example, the Annual Return is now Form AR01

rather than Form 363. The relevant law sections are now referred to within the body of the form.

* Companies must now complete a Statement of Capital when they are

first registered, whenever share capital changes, and every year

when they file their annual return. This is a snapshot of the companies

share capital at a given point in time, and also gives details of

voting and dividend rights for each share.