Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023

Registered email addresses

116 A limited partnership’s registered email address

(1) The Limited Partnerships Act 1907 is amended as follows.

(2) In section 8A (application for registration), in subsection (1), after paragraph (ab) (inserted by section 113 of this Act) insert—

“(ac) specify the intended registered email address of the limited partnership, which must be an appropriate email address within the meaning given by section 8H(2),”.

(3) After section 8G (inserted by section 113 of this Act) insert—

“A limited partnership‘s registered email address

8H Duty to maintain a registered email address

(1) The general partners in a limited partnership must ensure that its registered email address is at all times an appropriate email address.

(2) An email address is an “appropriate email address” if, in the ordinary course of events, emails sent to it by the registrar would be expected to come to the attention of a person acting on behalf of the limited partnership.

(3) If the general partners fail to comply with this section an offence is committed by each general partner who is in default.

(4) But where the general partner is a legal entity, it does not commit an offence as a general partner in default unless one of its managing officers is in default.

(5) Where any such offence is committed by a general partner that is a legal entity, or any such offence is by virtue of this subsection committed by a managing officer that is a legal entity, any managing officer of the legal entity also commits the offence if—

(a) the managing officer is an individual who is in default, or

(b) the managing officer is a legal entity that is in default and one of its managing officers is in default.

(6) A person guilty of an offence under this section is liable on summary conviction—

(a) in England and Wales, to a fine;

(b) in Scotland or Northern Ireland, to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale and, for continued contravention, a daily default fine not exceeding one-tenth of level 5 on the standard scale.

(7) A general partner or managing officer is “in default” for the purposes of this section if they authorise or permit, participate in, or fail to take all reasonable steps to prevent, the contravention.

8I Change of registered email address

(1) A limited partnership’s registered email address can be changed by the general partners giving notice to the registrar.

(2) The notice must include a statement that the new address is an appropriate email address within the meaning given by section 8H(2).

(3) The change takes effect upon the notice being registered by the registrar.”

117 A limited partnership’s registered email address: transitional provision

(1) This section applies in relation to a limited partnership registered under the Limited Partnerships Act 1907 in pursuance of an application for registration delivered to the registrar before section 116(2) came fully into force.

(2) The general partners must, within the transitional period, deliver to the registrar a statement specifying its registered email address (which must be an appropriate email address within the meaning given by section 8H(2) of that Act (inserted by section 116(3) of this Act)).

(3) The provisions mentioned in subsection (4) do not apply in respect of the limited partnership until—

(a) the end of the transitional period, or

(b) if earlier, the delivery of the statement mentioned in subsection (2).

(4) Those provisions are—

(a) section 8H of the Limited Partnerships Act 1907 (inserted by section 116(3) of this Act);

(b) section 10D(2)(c) of that Act (inserted by section 126 of this Act).

(5) In this section—

• “the registrar” has the same meaning as in the Limited Partnerships Act 1907 (see section 15 of that Act);

• “transitional period” means the period of 6 months beginning when section 116(2) came fully into force.

(6) Failure by the general partners in a limited partnership to comply with subsection (2) is, in the absence of any evidence to the contrary, to be treated by the registrar as reasonable cause to believe that the limited partnership has been dissolved for the purposes of section 19 of the Limited Partnerships Act 1907 (registrar’s power to confirm dissolution of limited partnership) (inserted by section 141 of this Act).

(7) Where the registrar proposes to rely on a failure by the general partners in the limited partnership to comply with subsection (2) as grounds for exercising the power in section 19 of the Limited Partnerships Act 1907, subsections (2) to (4) of that section (publication of warning notice) do not apply.