The Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act is expected to be implemented to the timescales set out below.
The legislation that affects companies will reduce red tape and enhance transparency. All companies will be affected by some of the new legislation, since it will change legal requirements on companies, including what they file with Companies House.
It is currently expected that the legislation will be implemented in three stages. Changes to the implementation schedule may still happen.
1. May 2015 - Bearer shares
Share warrants to bearer (known as ‘bearer shares’) were abolished and any existing share warrants will need to be surrendered within 9 months.
2. October 2015
a. Date of birth
Partial suppression of date of birth on the public register, in particular the day will be suppressed for directors.
b. Accelerated strike-off of a company from the Companies House Register
The time it takes to strike a company off the Companies House register will be reduced. The strike-off process is used to strike off a company from the Companies House register if it is not carrying on business.
Previously if no objection was received, a company would be struck off not less than three months after publication of the first Gazette notice. Under the accelerated procedure, a company will be struck off not less than two months from publication of the first Gazette notice. The accelerated strike off should provide the right balance between removing a defunct company from the register and allowing creditors time to register an objection.
c. Consent to act as a director or secretary
The ‘consent to act’ procedure shall be replaced. Previously the consent to act procedure for a director or secretary consisted of providing a signature on paper forms and personal authentication on electronic filings.
For newly appointed directors and secretaries, this will be replaced by a statement which will be added by Companies House to the relevant appointment and incorporation forms (paper and electronic) that the person has consented to act in their relevant capacity. Companies will be required to agree to this statement.
