The Companies (Summary Financial Statement) Regulations 1990

The manner in which the wishes of members are to be ascertained

6.—(1) For the purposes of section 251(2) of the 1985 Act, whether or not a member wishes to receive copies of the full accounts and reports for a financial year is to be ascertained:

(a) from any relevant notification in writing he has given to the company as to whether he wishes to continue to receive (or, having previously chosen to receive a summary financial statement, to receive for the future) copies of the full accounts and reports or as to whether he wishes, instead of copies of those documents, to receive summary financial statements under section 251 of the 1985 Act; or

(b) failing any such express notification, from any failure to respond to an opportunity given to the member to elect to receive copies of the full accounts and reports as part of a relevant consultation of his wishes by the company.

(2) For the purposes of paragraph (1)(a) above, a notification is a relevant notification with respect to a financial year if it relates to that year (whether or not it has been given at the invitation of the company and whether before or after the date of these Regulations) and if it:

(a) is received by the company not later than 28 days before the first date on which copies of the full accounts and reports are sent out to members in compliance with section 238(1) of the 1985 Act with respect to the financial year; and

(b) has not been impliedly countermanded, where the notification is of a wish to receive full accounts and reports, by a failure by the member concerned to respond to a subsequent relevant consultation of his wishes.

(3) For the purposes of this Regulation, a relevant consultation of the wishes of a member is a notice given to the member which:

(a) states that for the future he will be sent a summary financial statement instead of the full accounts and reports of the company, unless he notifies the company in writing that he wishes to continue to receive those documents;

(b) contains a statement in a prominent position that a failure to respond to the notice has important consequences;

(c) accompanies a copy of the full accounts and reports;

(d) accompanies a copy of a summary financial statement, prepared in accordance with section 251 of the 1985 Act and these Regulations, with respect to the financial year covered by those full accounts and reports and which is identified in the notice as an example of the document which the member will receive for the future unless he notifies the company to the contrary; and

(e) is accompanied by a printed card or form, in respect of which any postage necessary for its return to the company has been, or will be, paid by the company, which is so worded as to enable a member, by marking a box and returning the card or form, to notify the company of either or both of the following matters:

(i) that he wishes to receive full accounts and reports for the next financial year for which he is entitled to receive them,

(ii) to notify it that he wishes to receive them for all future financial years.