Other areas

Amongst the proposals aimed at increasing transparency in company operations, there is a proposal to adopt a single document company constitution. This will be simpler and clearer for both private and public companies.

It is intended that this document will replace the separate Memorandum and Articles of Association currently in place.

The requirement for a private company to have a company secretary will be abolished, although it may continue to appoint one if it wishes.

Comment

Proposals here will allow a single person to form both private and public companies. Currently for example, all private limited companies must have at least one director along with a company secretary and where the company has a sole director, that director cannot also be the company secretary.

In order to keep company law up to date and to ensure that it meets all of our needs, there are proposals to put those elements which are likely to need regular amendment into secondary legislation, and to devolve some detailed rule-making authority to specialist bodies.