Q. I have been asked by a friend to act as Company Secretary for his business because I have good administrative and organisational skills, although I don't have any formal qualifications. What will this involve?
A. No formal qualifications are requires to act as a Secretary of a private company.
The Secretary is responsible for the administration of the Company and performs the functions of an office manager as well as of a record-keeper. The following responsibilities are typical of a Company Secretary:
- Organising and keeping minutes of board and committee meetings, and distributing information, documents or other papers required for meetings.
- Ensuring that an annual general meeting is held, providing members and directors with notice of all meetings, providing members with proposed written resolutions and auditors with any passed resolutions.
- Ensuring compliance with all relevant statutory and regulatory requirements;
- Maintaining the statutory registers of directors and secretaries, of shareholders, debenture holders and minute books (for both directors and shareholders).
- Ensuring the company files statutory information promptly to Companies House,
such as copies of resolutions and agreements, accounts and reports and the Annual Return.
You should also note that Resource history
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the Secretary may be criminally liable for defaults committed by the company and it is not a role which should be undertaken lightly.
The actual responsibilities of a Company Secretary vary from company to company . For specialist advice contact Keith Swan of Patterson, Glenton & Stracey Solicitors by email at ks@pgslaw.co.uk or by telephone on 0808 231 7043. Patterson, Glenton & Stracey Solicitors have provided legal advice to the people of South Tyneside for over 125 years. For details of their full range of services and to view previous Gazette articles please log on to www.pgslaw.co.uk. Be Guided by the Experts.
