Company Secretarial Duties

Company legislation provides an opportunity for a business organisation to benefit from the protection of limited liability, separating the legal persona of the organisation from the individuals who own and run it.

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In return for this protection, a certain amount of information about a company must be publicly available including, for example, the company’s annual accounts, registered office address and details of directors, its company secretary (if there is one) and its members. Historically, providing and updating this information has been the job of the company secretary.

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The company secretary and Companies House

A company secretary, or in the case of a private company the person responsible for company secretarial duties, will have regular dealings with Companies House as this is where public records about the company are held.

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Most communications with Companies House are through Companies House Webfiling or their software filing facility. Companies House is moving towards 100% online filing and on the area of the website where forms are available to download and print, there are prominent flags for areas that could instead be completed electronically.

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Company secretarial duties

The duties of the person responsible for company secretarial matters are not defined specifically within company law but may be divided generally into three main areas:

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• maintaining statutory registers (keeping the company’s records up to date)

• completing and filing statutory forms (keeping the public record up to date)

• meetings and resolutions (making sure the company abides by both its internal regulations and the law).

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How we can help

If you would like to discuss any of the issues raised above, or would like further information about the PSC register or the implications of keeping your statutory information on the public register, please do contact us.

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We are able to provide comprehensive assistance with company secretarial matters such as:

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• the updating, maintenance and safekeeping of the company registers

• the processing and filing of minutes from directors’ and shareholders’ meetings

• the preparation and filing of resolutions

• the completion and filing of correct statutory forms

• the filing of the annual accounts

• confirmation statement filing.

 

Even though the need to appoint a company secretary for a private company has been abolished, there are a number of statutory procedures that companies must continue to comply with. We would be pleased to discuss these with you.