Following previous update  relating to The Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015 (the Act), certain provisions relevant to UK companies have now come into force. The provisions include the following:

Changes to information filed at Companies House 

The Act has abolished the requirement for a director or secretary to provide their formal “consent to act.” This requirement has been replaced with an obligation on the company to make a statement of truth that the director or secretary to be appointed has consented to act in such capacity. This means that directors and secretaries will no longer have to sign a paper form or provide electronic verification of their appointment.

The Act also places an obligation on the Registrar of Companies to send a notice to newly appointed directors notifying them of their appointment. Such notice will also include information about the office and duties of a director. Any person appearing on the public register as a director will, from December 2015, be able to apply to have their name removed if they did not consent to act, shifting the burden of proof back on to the company.

Date of birth of Directors 

The Act now provides that the day (but not the month or year) of the date of birth of all company directors be omitted from the information available on the public register at Companies House. The aim is to help reduce identity theft. However, a director’s date of birth will still continue to show where the date of birth of the director was contained in a document that was registered before this provision came into force. Similarly, if a private company elects under certain provisions of the Act (due to come into force next year) to keep its register of directors at Companies House, then the date of birth of the director will be visible to the public.

Accelerated strike-off 

The Act has amended the Companies Act 2006 in order to allow a company to be struck off the register faster. The Registrar of Companies is now able to strike off a company from the Register 2 months after first notice has appeared in the Gazette, compared to 3 months previously. This reduces the overall period for a striking-off application from around six months to four months. 

Further changes under the Act are due to come into force in 2016 and we will continue to provide further updates as and when the provisions come into force. If you have any queries in relation to the changes already in force, please feel free to contact us.

Omar Anwar is the author of this post.