I have recently completed some work that has involved a significant amount of company secretarial matters. This work has reminded me that The Companies Act 2006 that was recently implemented, from April 2008, made some changes in terms of the company secretary requirement.

Company secretaries were previously a statutory requirement. Now however, if companies choose to, they can inform Companies House via WebFiling or on the 288b form that they no longer require company secretarial services. It is now possible and legitimate to have a sole director and no company secretary.

Companies can, however, also amend their articles of association to include a requirement that a company secretary be employed. As the company secretary is an officer of the company, they may be liable for any default committed by the company.

While a company secretary doesn't have any official obligations, they often take care of many tasks that are legal requirements of a company. Duties such as maintaining statutory registers, ensuring that the company files statutory information properly and supplying a copy of the accounts to everyone that is entitles to receive notice of them often came under the requirements of a company secretary.

I think that this requirement will help some single director companies who often have to appoint somebody just to be the names company secretary and is therefore in my opinion a good simplification of the system.