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Company Law Memo 2006 Newsletter Issue 6 (November)

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The Companies Act 2006 received Royal Assent on 8 November 2006.

The final text of the Act has not yet been published.

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Implementation Timetable

The Government has indicated that it intends to follow the implementation timetable below:

COMPANIES ACT 2006: IMPLEMENTATION

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Early implementation: electronic communication

See CLM ¶259, ¶585, ¶4040+, ¶8229, ¶7750, ¶8468

The new Companies Act will facilitate the use of electronic communications between companies and their shareholders and third parties, and also between companies and Companies House.  These latter provisions will satisfy the UK’s obligations to implement the First Company Law Amendment Directive (EC Directive 2003/58).  However, since the Companies Act has taken so long to progress through parliament, some provisions will have to be brought into force early and changes will have to be made to the current legislation to meet the Directive’s implementation deadline of 31 December 2006. 

The DTI has published proposed provisions for a commencement order and regulations implementing the directive, which include the following:

» amending CA 1985 and IA 1986 and various statutory instruments to enable documents to be filed electronically at Companies House;

» amending CA 1985 to require that the company’s name, particulars and registration number appear on all order forms and websites;

» amending CA 1985 to require that references to documents include those in electronic form;

» amending IA 1986 to ensure that the company’s liquidation is noted on all electronic documents and the company’s website; and

» enabling Companies House to certify documents electronically. 

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