Stationery, websites & signs
Stationery
Websites
Signs
Enforcement
Stationery
1. Is there any information that a company is required to include in its stationery, etc?
A company must include its registered name in all forms of business correspondence and documentation. It must also include its registration details in business letters, order forms and websites. The table below sets out the fully requirements.
| Where disclosure to be made |
Type of disclosure to be made |
Box 1
Business letters
Order forms
Websites
|
Box 2
Registered name
Place of registration (e.g. Scotland)
Registered number
Address of registered office
If exempt from having "limited" as part of name, disclose it is a limited company
If a private community interest company, disclose this fact
If an investment company, disclose this fact
If there is reference to share capital, this must be a reference to paid-up share capital
|
Box 3
Notices & official publications
Bills of exchange
Promissory notes
Endorsements
Cheques
Orders for money, goods or services
Bills of parcels
Invoices & demands for payment
Receipts
Letters of credit
Applications for licences to carry on a trade or activity
All other forms of business correspondence/documentation (but for business letters/order forms see Box 2
|
Box 4
Registered name
|
2. My business is part of a group of companies. What information is required in stationery etc?
A company’s details must be included if the letter or order form is on its behalf. Similarly its registered name must be included in all business correspondence and documentation on its behalf.
The content of a communication determines whether or not it is a business letter. Whether the communication is sent in hard copy or electronically does not affect determine whether it is a business letter.
See Question 1, above.
If your email constitutes a business letter/order form, it must include the information listed in Box 2. If not, but it constitutes any of the documents listed in Box 3, then it must include the company’s the registered name.
See Question 1, above.
If your business card is used as business correspondence/documentation, then it must include the registered name of the company.
See Question 1, above.
If the slip constitutes a business letter, make the disclosure in Box 2. Otherwise disclose the registered name.
Websites
No, but the details should be displayed so that they can be easily read.
The details of every company that has authorised its inclusion on the website must be included on the site.
This is not required by the Companies Act 2006. You may want to check the point with HM Revenue & Customs.
Signs
A sign with the company’s registered name must be displayed:
at the company’s registered office and any place where its records are kept available for inspection unless the company has been dormant at all times since its incorporation (with an exception if this place is moved to the premises of a liquidator, administrator or administrative receiver who has been appointed to the company); and
At any other place where it carries on business unless the place is primarily used for living accommodation (with an exception if the company’s activities are likely to attract violent objections.
The sign must be positioned so that it may be easily read by any visitor to the company's premises. It must be able to be seen at any time, ie not only during business hours.
A sign with the company’s registered name must be displayed at its registered office and its alternative inspection location (if any) unless:
- the company has been dormant at all times since its incorporation;
- a liquidator, administrator or administrative receiver has been appointed and location is also a place of business for that liquidator, administrator or administrator.
A sign with the registered name is also required at all its other business premises but not :
- at places primarily used for living accommodation, or
- if every director has successfully applied to Companies House for his/her residential address not to be disclosed to credit reference agencies.
Where the company shares its premises with five or more other companies, each company is only required to display its registered name for at least fifteen continuous seconds at least once in every three minutes.
The Regulations do not require the sign to be displayed at any particular place; it must be positioned so that it may be easily seen by any visitor to the company's premises.
Enforcement
If you do not comply, you and your company commit an offence and could be subject to a fine. The current fine (December 2009) is up to £1,000 with a £100 daily default fine for continued contravention.
Companies House and local Trading Standards officers.
