Newsletter 2010 Issue 03

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Legislation

As may be expected after the wealth of legislation during 2009 and during the period before a general election, there has been no new companies in legislation (Acts of parliament or statutory instruments) since those reported in Newsletter 2010/02.

Registration of charges

The Department of Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) has issued a detailed consultation paper on the registration of charges at Companies House. The paper contains interesting details of current practice in this area.

The scheme for registration of company charges is set out in CA 2006, sec893 - sec894. The current legislation has been criticised on a number of grounds, including:

the list of registrable charges has not been revised in line with changes in law and commercial practice;
the particulars on the public record for a charge may not be an accurate reflection of the charge created;
some charges have to be registered in other registries, causing overlap;
he procedures for registration are cumbersome; and
the laws of Scotland and England and Wales differ.

BIS is seeking views on proposals to amend the law based on the 2001 recommendations of the Company Law Review and the subsequent advice of the Law Commission.

See our document on this site, and the consultation paper on registration of company and LLP charges issued by the Department for Business Innovation & Skills.