This Order may be cited as the Companies Act 2006 (Commencement No 4 and Commencement No 3 (Amendment)) Order 2007 and comes into force on 30th September 2007.

(1)    Sections 1137(1), (4), (5)(b) and (6) (regulations about inspection of company records and provision of copies: fees) and 1167 (meaning of “prescribed”) of the Companies Act 2006 come into force on 30th September 2007.

(2)    Section 1284 of the Companies Act 2006 (extension of Companies Acts to Northern Ireland) comes into force on 30th September 2007 so far as necessary for the purposes of the provisions mentioned in paragraph (1).

Where an expression in a provision brought into force by this Order—

(a)    is defined in the Companies Act 1985 or the Companies (Northern Ireland) Order 1986 (“the old definition”); and

(b)    is defined in the Companies Act 2006 by another provision that is not yet in force for the purposes of the provision brought into force (“the new definition”),

the expression has, for the purposes of the provision brought into force, the meaning given by the old definition until the new definition is brought into force for the purposes of that provision.

(1)    In article 2(1)(d) of the Companies Act 2006 (Commencement No 3, Consequential Amendments, Transitional Provisions and Savings) Order 2007, for “247” substitute “248”.

(2)    In Part 1 of Schedule 2 to that Order—

(a)    for “380(1) and (4) to (5)” substitute “380(4)(a) and (c) to (m)”,

(b)    omit “Section 719”, and

(c)    in the reference to Schedule 24 to the Companies Act 1985, omit “380(5),”.

(3)    In Part 2 of that Schedule—

(a)    for “388(1) and (4) to (5)” substitute “388(4)(a) and (c) to (m)”,

(b)    omit “Article 668”, and

(c)    in the reference to Schedule 23 to the Companies Act (Northern Ireland) Order 1986, omit “388(5),”.

(4)    In Schedule 3 to that Order omit paragraph 18.

Stephen Timms

Minister of State for Competitiveness

Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform

6th September 2007

This is the fourth Commencement Order made under the Companies Act 2006 (“the 2006 Act”). Part 47 and certain provisions in Parts 43, 44 and 46 came into force on the passing of the 2006 Act.

Article 2(1) brings into force on 30th September 2007—

the power to make regulations about fees charged by companies for inspection of company records and provision of copies, and

the definition in the Companies Acts of “prescribed” (which enables the Secretary of State to make orders and regulations for things which have to be prescribed, such as some fees and forms).

Article 2(2) brings the extension of the 2006 Act to Northern Ireland into force so far as necessary for the purposes of those provisions.

Article 3 provides that where a provision being brought into force uses an expression defined in the old law, that definition applies until it is repealed and replaced by the corresponding definition in the 2006 Act.

Article 4 amends the Companies Act 2006 (Commencement No 3, Consequential Amendments, Transitional Provisions and Savings) Order 2007 (“the Third Commencement Order”) by reversing the repeal of the provisions in the Companies Act 1985 (“the 1985 Act”) and the Companies (Northern Ireland) Order 1986 (“the 1986 Order”) which provide for companies to have the power to provide for employees on cessation or transfer of business, and also reverses the coming into force of the provision in the 2006 Act for directors to have essentially the same power. A gap in the law would have been created if those provisions in the 1985 Act and the 1986 Order had been replaced by that provision in the 2006 Act before section 31 of the 2006 Act also came into force.

Article 4 also reverses the repeal of provisions in the 1985 Act and the 1986 Order which require copies of extraordinary resolutions, elective resolutions and resolutions revoking elective resolutions to be forwarded to the registrar of companies. The provisions of the 1985 Act and the 1986 Order for elective resolutions as to the duration of an authority to allot shares remain in force; and the Third Commencement Order keeps the possibility of an extraordinary resolution alive for limited purposes. This Order ensures that the obligation to register extraordinary and elective resolutions also remains in force.

This Order comes into force on 30th September 2007, the day before the reversed repeals would have come into force.