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Written by Calum Haswell
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Friday, 17 June 2011 |
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The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has announced a new
law, which came into force on 14 June, which gives small and medium sized
businesses easier access to justice to protect their patent and design rights.
This law places a damages cap of £500, 000 on claims made in the Patents County
Court. This change means that small companies claiming damages up to this
amount are less likely to face a potentially more expensive trip to the high
court. Previously legal cases worth less than £500, 000 could have unknown
levels of financial risk.
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Written by Calum Haswell
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Monday, 13 June 2011 |
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Companies House has lent its support to StartUp Britain, a government initiative to encourage entrepreneurship in the UK. The government and Companies House see Start-ups and small firms as vital to economic recovery, with SMEs accounting for almost 60% of private sector jobs and 50% of private sector GVA. The StartUp Britain website has more information.
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Written by Calum Haswell
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Friday, 06 May 2011 |
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The FSA has published a revised Remuneration Code for consultation. The code
was revised to implement the requirements of the third Capital Requirements
Directive (CRD3) and came into force on 1 January 2011. The revised Code covers
a wide variety of firms, including investment banks, retail banks, building
societies, asset management firms, stockbrokers, corporate finance firms and
multi-lateral trading facilities.
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Written by Calum Haswell
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Tuesday, 12 April 2011 |
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The Financial
Reporting Council has published a new report. Cutting Clutter: Combatting Clutter in Annual Reports (pdf) is
available on the FRC website and identifies the causes of clutter, outlining
strategies for minimising it. Examples of clutter are explanatory information
that is unchanged year to year and immaterial disclosures which hinder the
identification of relevant information.
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Written by Calum Haswell
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Tuesday, 12 April 2011 |
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The European Commission
has published a Green Paper on corporate governance in Europe. The Paper
launches a public consultation, inviting views from citizens, organisations and
public authorities, on ways of improving existing corporate governance
mechanisms.
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Written by Calum Haswell
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Tuesday, 12 April 2011 |
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The
Financial Services Authority (FSA) and HM Treasury (HMT) have published a joint
review of the UK’s covered bond regulation. The review proposes a range of
measures to build on the UK’s covered bond regime as well as providing an
update on the UK's engagement with its international partners on other areas of
policy which relate to covered bonds.
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Written by Calum Haswell
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Wednesday, 02 March 2011 |
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The European Commission has adopted a proposal to interconnect business registers within the EU. The aim is to stimulate cross-border trade and make savings. The press release (html) and the full proposal (pdf) are available on the EC Europa website.
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Written by Calum Haswell
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Wednesday, 02 March 2011 |
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The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) has published a new technical release Tech 01/11: Guidance for Directors on Accounting Records under the Companies Act (2006). This technical release is available on the ICAEW website and focuses on Section 386 of the Companies Act 2006 which obliges all companies to have accounting records satisfying the requirements set out in that section.
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Written by Calum Haswell
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Wednesday, 02 March 2011 |
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Companies House has updated its guidance on companies’ requirements on the
filing of annual returns and accounts for UK companies (Life of a Company – Part
1 Annual Requirements – GP 2) under the Companies Act 2006. These guidelines
are available on the Companies House website. These guidelines are relevant for
company secretaries and directors and advisers to companies. These guidelines
apply to annual returns made after 1 October 2009 or accounting periods after 6
April 2008.
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Written by Calum Haswell
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Thursday, 10 February 2011 |
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The Financial Services Authority has published new guidance documents for retail firms, concerning their corporate governance. VThe guidance (pdf) summarises key points discussed by the FSA at seminars in autumn 2010 and is aimed at chairs and chief executives and is available on the FSA website.
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Written by Calum Haswell
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Thursday, 10 February 2011 |
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The European Commission has published a summary of responses received to its recent green paper Audit policy: lessons from the crisis. The responses (pdf) are available on the Europa website along with the original green paper (pdf).
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Written by Calum Haswell
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Thursday, 10 February 2011 |
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The Companies House Companies Act Guidance on Registrar’s Rules and Powers – GP6 has been updated on the Companies House website. The new guidelines, dated January 2011, are available in html and pdf format.
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Written by Calum Haswell
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Tuesday, 18 January 2011 |
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The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has undertaken a project to evaluate the outcomes of the Act and the consequences of regulatory changes for companies, shareholders and other stakeholders. The Companies Act Evaluation page Companies Act Evaluation page has further information.
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Written by Calum Haswell
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Tuesday, 18 January 2011 |
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The Financial Services Authority’s newly published quarterly consultation paper (PDF) proposes changes to the Listing Rules.
Comments (1) | Add as favourites (166) | Quote this on your site | Views: 2986 |
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Written by Calum Haswell
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Thursday, 23 December 2010 |
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Businesslink, the government’s free business advice service, is now offering a range of tax help for new and small businesses in the form of guides and videos . These guides and videos are available on the Businesslink site .
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Written by Calum Haswell
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Thursday, 23 December 2010 |
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The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has published an updated December 2010 Guidance on Audit Committees. The FRC Guidance on Audit Committees (formerly known as the Smith Guidance) was first published in 2003 and is intended to assist company boards when implementing the sections of the UK Corporate Governance Code dealing with audit committees and to assist directors serving on audit committees in carrying out their role. The new guidance document (pdf) is available on the FRC website.
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Written by Calum Haswell
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Tuesday, 07 December 2010 |
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The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has published The Path to strong, sustainable and balanced growth (PDF). This policy document sets out the government’s commitment to private sector growth, comprised of four parts:
- providing the stability business needs to plan and invest;
- making markets more dynamic by removing barriers to growth wherever it can;
- focusing the Government’s own activities on providing the conditions for private sector growth and investment;
- and ensuring that strong growth is fairly shared and sustainable in the long term.
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Written by Calum Haswell
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Wednesday, 24 November 2010 |
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The government has
announced plans to help small and medium sized business. Six steps are to be
taken to assist businesses and encourage entrepreneurship:
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Written by Calum Haswell
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Monday, 01 November 2010 |
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The department for business, innovation and skills has launched its review of the UK corporate governance framework with a consultation document. A long-term focus for corporate Britain: a call for evidence (pdf), available on the BIS website, provides an overview of issues in UK corporate governance and asks a number of questions of stakeholders, aiming to investigate issues such as short-termism, investor engagement, directors’ remuneration and the economic case for takeovers. The government invites responses to this consultation by 14 January 2011.
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Written by Calum Haswell
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Monday, 01 November 2010 |
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The department for business, innovation and skills has published a paper entitled Understanding local growth. This paper sets out the policies this Government plans to put in place to ensure that local areas have the tools and incentives to maximise their potential for growth. The paper (pdf) is available on the BIS website.
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Written by Calum Haswell
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Thursday, 21 October 2010 |
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The Local Better Regulation Office (LBRO) has prepared and published a comprehensive report of business attitudes to regulation and its burdens. From The Business End of the Telescope - Perspectives on Local Regulation and Enforcement is available on the LBRO website. The report contains the input of 35 organisations, aiming to explore the ways in which a better understanding of the needs of business could improve outcomes and efficiency both for the regulators and those who are regulated, as well as consumers and communities.
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Written by Calum Haswell
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Thursday, 21 October 2010 |
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The Financial Reporting Council have published an updated version of its The UK Approach to Corporate Governance. The document is available on the FRC website (pdf).
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Written by Calum Haswell
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Friday, 06 August 2010 |
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The Companies House annual report (pdf) has been published on the Companies House website.
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Written by Calum Haswell
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Friday, 06 August 2010 |
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The Auditing Practices Board (APB) of the FRC has published a discussion paper entitled ‘Auditor scepticism: Raising the bar’. The Discussion Paper emphasises the importance of scepticism to audit quality and draws on recent research to stimulate debate about what actions may be needed to ensure that the appropriate degree of scepticism is applied by auditors in practice. This paper (pdf) is available on the APB website and consultation closes on 31 October 2010.
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Written by Calum Haswell
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Tuesday, 06 July 2010 |
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The Auditing Practices Board (APB) of the FRC has issued for comment a consultation draft of a revision of Practice Note 25 “Attendance at stocktaking.” The consultation period ends on 5 October 2010.
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Written by Calum Haswell
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Tuesday, 06 July 2010 |
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The Equality Act 2010 will be implemented from 1 October 2010. The Equality Act brings together nine separate pieces of existing legislation to simplify the law and make compliance easier for companies. Summary guides are available on the equalities.gov website.
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Written by Calum Haswell
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Thursday, 01 July 2010 |
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The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) and the Financial Services Authority have issued a joint discussion paper (PDF) in order to open debate on how the FSA, FRC and auditors can work together to enhance auditors’ contribution to prudential regulation.
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Written by Calum Haswell
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Monday, 28 June 2010 |
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Our new poll is now online. You will see it in the sidebar to the right of this page.
For your company, is the impact of the recession over? Is your company back to pre-recession trading? Are things improving? Or are things getting worse? You can discuss this in more detail in our forum.
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Written by Calum Haswell
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Friday, 28 May 2010 |
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The coalition government has announced its intention to reinstate an Operating and Financial Review, to “ensure that directors’ social and environmental duties have to be covered in company reporting, and investigate further ways of improving corporate accountability and transparency”.
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Written by Calum Haswell
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Tuesday, 30 March 2010 |
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Companies House has published additional guidance on Section 1024 of the Companies Act 2006. Administrative restoration is where a company was dissolved because it appeared to be no longer carrying on business or in operation, a former director or member applies to the registrar to have the company restored to the register.
http://www.companieshouse.gov.uk/about/miscellaneous/administrativeRestoration.shtml
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Written by Calum Haswell
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Tuesday, 30 March 2010 |
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Following a consultation on its report and recommendations published in December, the Financial Reporting Council has published responses from companies. These responses are available to view individually on the FRC website.
http://www.frc.org.uk/corporate/2009DecConsultationamendments.cfm
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Written by Calum Haswell
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Tuesday, 23 March 2010 |
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The Institute for Company Secretaries and Administrators (ICSA) has published its response to the FRC Combined Code’s recommendations. ICSA is generally supportive of the draft code and its approach but express reservations on the issue of reelection of directors. The response (pdf) to the recommendations (html) are available on the ICSA website.
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Written by Calum Haswell
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Thursday, 11 March 2010 |
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Companies House has published updated guidance booklets for the use of company secretaries, directors and advisers. GP4 - Strike Off, Dissolution and Restoration and GPLLP3 - Limited Liability Partnership Strike Off, Dissolution and Restoration are available on the Companies House website (html).
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Written by Calum Haswell
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Thursday, 11 March 2010 |
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Corporation Tax Act 2010 has now been published on LexisLibrary (subscription required) and OPSI .
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Written by Calum Haswell
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Tuesday, 16 February 2010 |
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Companies House has published updated guidance booklets for the use of company secretaries, directors and advisers. GP2 – Life of a company and GP06 – The Europeaan Company are available on the Companies House website (html).
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Written by Calum Haswell
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Friday, 12 February 2010 |
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The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 (Commencement No 2) Order 2010 was made on 9 February and is available on the OPSI website. The Order brings into force Section 10 of the Act on 15 February.
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Written by Calum Haswell
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Tuesday, 09 February 2010 |
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Companies
Act 2006, Section 508 Guidance for Regulatory and Prosecuting Authorities in England, Wales
and Northern Ireland Offences in Connection With Auditors' Reports (Section 507)
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Written by Calum Haswell
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Tuesday, 02 February 2010 |
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The Financial Services Authority has published a consultation paper: Effective corporate governance (Significant influence controlled
functions and the Walker review). This consultation paper sets out a new framework of classification of controlled functions and other changes to the approved persons regime. The document sets out guidance for non-execitive Directors, details of the FSA’s more intrusive approach and proposes implementation of some Walker review recommendations.
The consultation paper (PDF) is available on the FSA website.
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Written by Calum Haswell
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Monday, 14 December 2009 |
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The Companies Act 2006 (Substitution of Section 1201) Regulations 2009 replace section 1201 of the Companies Act 2006 (c.46) to ensure that this provision complies with Article 16 (freedom to provide services) of Directive 2006/123/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 December 2006 on services in the internal market (OJ L 376, 27.12.2006, page 36).
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Written by Calum Haswell
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Wednesday, 02 December 2009 |
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The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has published a final report on its 2009 review of the Combined Code on Corporate Governance. A consultation document accompanies the final report, setting out proposed changes to the code and inviting comment. Consultation is open until 5 March 2009.
Final report
Consultation document
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Written by Calum Haswell
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Tuesday, 01 December 2009 |
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The Department for Business, Innovation and skills is inviting views on changing the law to reduce the risk of companies incorrectly using the addresses of other businesses or private individuals as their registered office address and set out a process for third parties to challenge the information on the register. Consultation is open until Tuesday, 19 January 2010.
http://www.berr.gov.uk/consultations/page53697.html
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Written by Calum Haswell
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Thursday, 26 November 2009 |
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The government department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) has issued a consultation document, opening a consultation period on statements of capital in the Companies Act 2006. The document sets out proposals for amending the requirements. The idea behind the amendments is to balance the interests of the third party obtaining information with the cost to the company of supplying the information.http://www.berr.gov.uk/consultations/page53695.html
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Written by Calum Haswell
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Wednesday, 11 November 2009 |
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HM Treasury and HMRC have published a consultation document outlining options for the reforming the associated company rules as they apply to the small companies’ rate of corporation tax. The consultation is undertaken in order to understand whether the option presented would benefit business by providing a more targeted test to establish those companies that form an economic whole and thus whose profits should be considered collectively in establishing the rate of corporation tax that applies to them.
Consultation opened on 29 October 2009 and closes on 22 January 2010.
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Written by Calum Haswell
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Wednesday, 11 November 2009 |
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The European Commission has published a green paper which launches a consultation on access to company registers in the EU. The green paper argues for the importance of enhanced cooperation of business registries, aiming to improve access to information and to strengthen cooperation between business registers in cross-border procedures.
The green paper can be found on the IPEX website.
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Written by Calum Haswell
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Friday, 30 October 2009 |
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With the Companies Act now in force in its entirety, this conference will examine the latest provisions in detail and guiding you through the changes to the memorandum and the new model articles.
Tim Moss, Director of Corporate Strategy, will be providing an overview of the changes in rules and functions happening at Companies House and Alan Buchanan, Company Secretary, BA will be offering his personal insight into the impact of the Act to date.
For more information please visit: www.conferencesandtraining.com/companies-act
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Written by Calum Haswell
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Wednesday, 28 October 2009 |
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A consultation period has opened on the OECD guidelines, recommendations on responsible business conduct addressed by Governments to multinational enterprises operating in or from their territories. The UK consultation is open to stakeholders on the priority areas for an update of the OECD Guidelines for multinational enterprises in order to identify options for possible technical or more substantive updates of the text of the OECD Guidelines and Commentaries.
The consultation document is available on the BERR website. Consultation is open until 25 January 2010
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Written by Calum Haswell
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Friday, 02 October 2009 |
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The final implementations of the Companies Act 2006 have now come into force. Key provisions of the Companies Act 2006 include:
- Creating separate and simpler model Articles of Association for small companies, reflecting how they operate
- Enabling greater use of electronic communications with shareholders therefore avoiding unnecessary cost and time consuming administration
- Making it an offence to carry on business in the UK under a name that gives so misleading an indication of the nature of the activities of the business as to be likely to cause harm to the public.
Comments (1) | Add as favourites (233) | Quote this on your site | Views: 3603 |
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Written by Calum Haswell
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Monday, 28 September 2009 |
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The Companies (Creditor Protection and Treasury Shares) Regulations come into force on 1 October 2009 and implement the amendments to the Second Company Law Directive:
Amend creditor protection provisions when companies reduce their capital, so that creditors objecting to the reduction will be required to demonstrate that their claim is at stake and the company has not provided adequate safeguards;
Provide an option for companies to be authorized for a period of up to 5 years to purchase and hold their own shares up to the limit of distributable reserves (profits);
Reduce the current 21 day period of notice given to existing shareholders when companies issue new shares to raise capital to 14 days
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