The following is an extract from on-going discussions which started in October 2008 between Nick Gould, a corporate partner at Ince & Co, International Law firm, and several other interested parties. The matter has gained particular prominence this week following an article by Sir Kenneth Mac Donald a previous director of Public Prosecutor in The Times.

 

Nick Gould is a partner in the City law firm and had spent much of the last two years or so gaining some understanding of a major piece of commercial legislation entitled “The Companies Act 2006”; the largest piece of legislation ever brought into UK law, consisting of some 1,300 sections, 16 schedules and,  200 pages of explanatory notes as well as numerous Ministerial statements, written statements, ‘Regulatory Impact Assessments’, briefs and dozens of statutory instruments to date.

 

The Act took more than eight years of review, research and lobbying to produce, finally reaching the statute books in late 2006. It will take the best part of three years to become fully effective, mainly because Companies House was not able to implement all necessary actions required of them under the legislation’s original time frame.