You are not alone if you think that many aspects of company law have become out of date and lacking in clarity - the government agrees! Within a recent White Paper, the Secretary of State has commented that company law has:
With this in mind, the government has announced that it intends to modernise company law and will introduce a new Companies Bill. The Bill will aim to provide a modern, cost effective, fair and transparent system that will balance the interests of business with those of shareholders, creditors and others. The current government proposals follow an independent review of company legislation, which began in 1998.
The intention now is to ‘think small first’ and therefore use small companies as the starting point for company law reform and make additional or different provisions for larger companies where necessary. While no firm dates have been set for implementation, we outline the key proposed changes below, highlighting how these may directly affect your business.