SBEE Act 2015 – updates to templates following October 2015 implementation

The SBEE has received Royal Assent and will be phased into law over the next 9 months. All private companies will be affected by at least some changes as the measures will change legal requirements on companies, including what they file with Companies House. For more details and an overview of the current status of the SBEE, you can link to our information page here.

However certain changes are coming into force in October 2015, these include:

• The partial suppression of a director’s date of birth on the public register;

• An accelerated procedure for striking companies off the register; and

• A change to the ‘consent to act’ procedure for newly appointed directors and secretaries.

These changes are in part being made to streamline company procedures; however, they are also being introduced as a way to try and combat fraud and prevent directors being appointed without their agreement or their details being used for fraudulent means.

In light of these changes we have updated several of our documents in the Starting Up, Dealing with Directors and Company Secretary & Admin groups of documents including:

• Guidance notes;

• Board Minutes; and

• Shareholder resolutions.

These updated documents will be of interest to private company directors, secretaries and administrators.

The SBEE also intends to begin phasing out corporate directors in October 2016 so that all directors must be natural persons. This as well as other important changes in the SBEE such as the changes to the keeping of company registers and the need for private companies to keep a “People with Significant Control” register will all require changes to the administration of private companies.

We will notify you when these changes are being made and update our portfolio of relevant documents in due course. Watch this space!