Companies Act 1948

PART XI General Provisions as to Registration.

424 Registration offices in England and Scotland.

(1) For the purposes of the registration of companies under this Act/there shall be offices in England and Scotland at such places as the Board of Trade think fit.

(2) The Board of Trade may appoint such registrars, assistant registrars, clerks and servants as the Board think necessary for the registration of companies under this Act, and may make regulations with respect to their duties, and may remove any persons so appointed.

(3) The salaries of the persons appointed under this section shall be fixed by the Board of Trade with the concurrence of the Treasury, and shall be paid out of money provided by Parliament.

(4) The Board of Trade may require that the office of the registrar of the court exercising in respect of the winding up of companies the stannaries jurisdiction shall be one of the offices for the registration of companies within that jurisdiction.

(5) The Board may direct a seal or seals to be prepared for the authentication of documents required for or connected with the registration of companies.

(6) Whenever any act is by this Act directed to be done to or by the registrar of companies, it shall, until the Board of Trade otherwise direct, be done to or by the existing registrar of companies in England or Scotland, as the case may be, or in his absence to or by such person as the Board may for the time being authorise:

Provided that, in the event of the Board altering the constitution of the existing registry offices or any of them, any such act shall be done to or by such officer and at such place with reference to the local situation of the registered offices of the companies to be registered as the Board may appoint.

425 Fees.

(1) In respect of the several matters mentioned in the first column of the table set out in Part I of the Twelfth Schedule to this Act, there shall, subject to the limitations imposed by Part II of that Schedule, be paid to the registrar the several fees specified in the second column of that table:

Provided that no fees shall be charged in respect of the registration in pursuance of Part VIII of this Act of a company if it is not registered as a limited company, or if before its registration as a limited company the liability of the shareholders was limited by some other Act of Parliament or by letters patent.

(2) All fees paid to the registrar in pursuance of this Act shall be paid into the Exchequer.

426 Inspection, production and evidence of documents kept by registrar.

(1) Any person may—

(a) inspect the documents kept by the registrar of companies, on payment of such fee as may be appointed by the Board of Trade, not exceeding one shilling for each inspection;

(b) require a certificate of the incorporation of any company, or a copy or extract of any other document or any part of any other document, to be certified by the registrar, on payment for the certificate, certified copy or extract of such fees as the Board of Trade may appoint, not exceeding five shillings for a certificate of incorporation and not exceeding sixpence for each folio of a certified copy or extract:

Provided that,—

(i) in relation to documents delivered to the registrar with a prospectus in pursuance of sub-paragraph (i) of paragraph (b) of subsection (1) of section forty-one of this Act, the rights conferred by this subsection shall be exercisable only during the fourteen days, beginning with the date of publication of the prospectus or with the permission of the Board of Trade, and in relation to documents so delivered in pursuance of paragraph (b) of subsection (1) of section four hundred and twenty of this Act the said rights shall be exercisable only during the fourteen days beginning with the date of the prospectus or with the permission of the Board of Trade; and

(ii) the right conferred by paragraph (a) of this subsection shall not extend to any copy sent to the registrar under section three hundred and seventy-two of this Act of a statement as to the affairs of a company or of any comments of the receiver or his successor or a continuing receiver or manager thereon, but only to the summary thereof, except where the person claiming the right either is or is the agent of a person stating himself in writing to be a member or creditor of the company to which the statement relates, and the right conferred by paragraph (b) of this subsection shall be similarly limited.

(2) No process for compelling the production of any document kept by the registrar shall issue from any court except with the leave of that court, and any such process if issued shall bear thereon a statement that it is issued with the leave of the court.

(3) A copy of, or extract from, any document kept and registered at any of the offices for the registration of companies in England or Scotland, certified to be a true copy under the hand of the registrar (whose official position it shall not be necessary to prove), shall in all legal proceedings be admissible in evidence as of equal validity with the original document.

(4) Any person untruthfully stating himself in writing for the purposes of proviso (ii) to subsection (1) of this section to be a member or creditor of a company shall be liable to a fine not exceeding fifty pounds.

(5) In the application of this section to Scotland, as in its application to England, a folio shall be deemed to consist of seventy-two words.

427 Power of registrar in England to direct removal of documents to Public Record Office.

(1) Where a company has been dissolved, whether under this Act or otherwise, the registrar may, at any time after the expiration of two years from the date of the dissolution, direct that any documents in his custody relating to that company may be removed to the Public Record Office, and documents in respect of which any such direction is given shall be disposed of in accordance with the provisions of the Public Record Office Acts, 1838 to 1898, and the rules made thereunder.

(2) In this section the expression “company ” includes a company provisionally or completely registered under the Act 7 and 8 Victoria chapter one hundred and ten.

(3) This section shall not extend to Scotland.

428 Enforcement of duty of company to make returns to registrar.

(1) If a company, having made default in complying with any provision of this Act which requires it to file with, deliver or send to the registrar of companies any return, account or other document, or to give notice to him of any matter, fails to make good the default within fourteen days after the service of a notice on the company requiring it to do so, the court may, on an application made to the court by any member or creditor of the company or by the registrar of companies, make an order directing the company, anct any officer thereof to make good the default within such time as may be specified in the order.

(2) Any such order may provide that all costs of and incidental to the application shall be borne by the company or by any officers of the company responsible for the default.

(3) Nothing in this section shall be taken to prejudice the operation of any enactment imposing penalties on a company or its officers in respect of any such default as aforesaid.