Companies Act 1985

26 Prohibition on registration of certain names

(1) A company shall not be registered under this Act by a name—

(a) which includes, otherwise than at the end of the name, any of the following words or expressions, that is to say, " limited ", " unlimited " or " public limited company " or their Welsh equivalents (" cyfyngedig ". " anghyfyngedig " and " cwmni cyfyngedig cyhoeddus" respectively) ;

(b) which includes, otherwise than at the end of the name, an abbreviation of any of those words or expressions;

(c) which is the same as a name appearing in the registrar's index of company names;

(d) the use of which by the company would in the opinion of the Secretary of State constitute a criminal offence; or

(e) which in the opinion of the Secretary of State is offensive.

(2) Except with the approval of the Secretary of State, a company shall not be registered under this Act by a name which—

(a) in the opinion of the Secretary of State would be likely to give the impression that the company is connected in any way with Her Majesty's Government or with any local authority; or

(b) includes any word or expression for the time being specified in regulations under section 29.

" Local authority " means any local authority within the meaning of the [1972 c. 70.] Local Government Act 1972 or the [1973 c. 65.] Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973, the Common Council of the City of London or the Council of the Isles of Scilly.

(3) In determining for purposes of subsection (1)(c) whether one name is the same as another, there are to be disregarded—

(a) the definite article, where it is the first word of the name;

(b) the following words and expressions where they appear at the end of the name, that is to say—

• " company " or its Welsh equivalent (" cwmni "), " and company" or its Welsh equivalent (" a'r cwmni"),

• " company limited" or its Welsh equivalent (" cwmni cyfyngedig "), " and company limited " or its Welsh equivalent (" a'r cwmni cyfyngedig "),

• " limited " or its Welsh equivalent (" cyfyngedig "), " unlimited " or its Welsh equivalent (" anghyfyngedig "), and

• " public limited company " or its Welsh equivalent (" cwmni cyfyngedig cyhoeddus ");

(c) abbreviations of any of those words or expressions where they appear at the end of the name; and

(d) type and case of letters, accents, spaces between letters and punctuation marks;

and " and " and " & " are to be taken as the same.