36.—(1) A company shall not be registered under this Order by a name—
(a)which includes, otherwise than at the end of the name, any of the following words or expressions, that is to say, “limited”, “unlimited”[F1, “public limited company”, “community interest company” or “community interest public limited company”];
(b)which includes otherwise than at the end of the name an abbreviation of any of those words or expressions;
[F2(bb)which includes, at any place in the name, the expression “investment company with variable capital” or “open‐ended investment company”;]
[F3(bbb)which includes, at any place in the name, the expression “limited liability partnership”;]
(c)which is the same as a name appearing in the registrar's index of company names;
(d)the use of which by the company would in the opinion of the Department constitute a criminal offence; or
(e)which in the opinion of the Department is offensive.
(2) Except with the approval of the Department, a company shall not be registered under this Order by a name which—
(a)in the opinion of the Department would be likely to give the impression that the company is connected in any way with Her Majesty's Government or with any district council; or
(b)includes any word or expression for the time being prescribed in regulations under Article 39.
(3) In determining for the purposes of paragraph (1)(c) whether one name is the same as another, there are to be disregarded—
(a)the definite article, where it is the first word of the name;
(b)the following words and expressions where they appear at the end of the name, that is to say—
“company”, “and company”, “company limited”, “and company limited”, “limited”, “unlimited”F4. . . “public limited company”[F5, “community interest company”, “community interest public limited company”,][F4F2. . . “investment company with variable capital”;][F2 and open‐ended investment company]
(c)abbreviations of any of those words or expressions where they appear at the end of the name; and
(d)type and case of letters, accents, spaces between letters and punctuation marks;
and “and” and “&” are to be taken as the same.
F1Words in art. 36(1)(a) substituted (6.4.2007) by Companies Act 2006 (Commencement No. 2, Consequential Amendments, Transitional Provisions and Savings) Order 2007 (S.I. 2007/1093), arts. 1(3), 6(2), Sch. 4 para. 48(a) (with art. 11(1))
F2SR 2004/335
F3SR 2004/307
F4SR 1997/251
F5Words in art. 36(3)(b) inserted (6.4.2007) by Companies Act 2006 (Commencement No. 2, Consequential Amendments, Transitional Provisions and Savings) Order 2007 (S.I. 2007/1093), arts. 1(3), 6(2), Sch. 4 para. 48(b) (with art. 11(1))
Modifications etc. (not altering text)
C1Art. 36(3) applied (with modifications) (prosp.) by Charities Act (Northern Ireland) 2008 (c. 12), ss. 20(7), 185(1)
F6Order repealed (prosp.) by Companies Act 2006 (c. 46), ss. 1284(2), 1295, 1300(2), Sch. 16 and the repeal being partly in force, as to which see individual Articles (with savings (with adaptations) by Companies Act 2006 (Commencement No. 6, Saving and Commencement Nos. 3 and 5 (Amendment)) Order 2008 (S.I. 2008/674), arts. 2(3), {4}, Sch. 2) and subject to amendments (6.4.2008) by Companies Act 2006 (Consequential Amendments etc) Order 2008 (S.I. 2008/948), arts. 2(2), 3(1)(b)(2), Sch. 1 paras. 135, 147, 148 {Sch. 2 Note 1} (with arts. 6, 11, 12) and subject to amendments (6.4.2008) by S.R. 2008/133, {regs. 2, 3}