News



Red Tape Challenge: Consultation to Simplify Company Name Regulations

20 - 03 - 2013

Dozens of regulations relating to the day to day running of a company and the preparing and filing of their accounts are to be scrapped, merged or simplified, the government has announced.



Business Minister Jo Swinson recently announced the interim results from the Company and Commercial Law Red Tape Challenge, an interactive government campaign to reduce the overall burden of regulation, dealing with 115 regulations. Of these 115, she announced that 37 are to be scrapped and 20 are to be simplified.

 
The government also launched a consultation on ways to improve the business and company names regulations, reducing their complexity and easing their burden on business. Proposals include removing certain names from the list of 161 sensitive words and expressions which require approval from specified bodies before being registered at Companies House.
 
Measures to simplify the rules a company must adhere to when displaying the company name at their premises, on paper and online were also announced. Proposals for a reform of the accounting requirements for companies with less than ten employees, also known as ‘micro-businesses’, were also made public. Under this proposal, micro-businesses would be allowed to submit simpler accounts and draw up shortened balance sheets and profit and loss accounts and will remain exempt from filing profit and loss accounts.

Business Minister Jo Swinson said: ‘The Companies Act is understandably a complex bit of law. However, there are many areas where this has resulted in companies unnecessarily being tied down by red tape. Businesses told us through this bureaucracy cutting exercise just how time consuming some of the form filling is and how the rules they have to abide by are completely redundant. We have heard them loud and clear and are now taking action.’

You can see the interim findings from the Company and Commercial Law Red Tape Challenge here
 
The consultation on the company names reform can be found here 
 
The consultation will close on 22 May 2013.


 

 

 

 

 

Foremans LLP Umberlla
Foremans LLP