The provisions of this Order specified in the first column of Schedule 21 (relating respectively to the matters specified in the second column of the Schedule) apply to all bodies corporate incorporated in and having a principal place of business in Northern Ireland, other than those mentioned in paragraph (2), as if they were companies registered under this Order, but subject to any limitations mentioned in relation to those provisions respectively in the third column and to such adaptations and modifications (if any) as may be specified by regulations made by the Department.

Where against any provision of this Order specified in the first column of Schedule 21 there appears in the third column the entry “Subject to Article 667(3)”, it means that the provision is to apply by virtue of this Article so far only as may be specified by regulations made by the Department and to such bodies corporate as may be so specified.

The provisions specified in the first column of the Schedule also apply in like manner in relation to any unincorporated body of persons entitled by virtue of letters patent to any of the privileges conferred by the M1 Chartered Companies Act 1837 and not registered under any other statutory provision, but subject to the like exceptions as are provided for in the case of bodies corporate by paragraph (2)(b) and (c).

This Article does not repeal or revoke in whole or in part any statutory provision, royal charter or other instrument constituting or regulating any body in relation to which the said provisions are applied by virtue of this Article or restrict the power of Her Majesty to grant a charter in lieu of or supplementary to any such charter as aforesaid; but, in relation to any such body, the operation of any such statutory provision, charter or instrument is suspended in so far as it is inconsistent with any of the said provisions as they apply for the time being to that body.

The powers of a company include (if they would not otherwise do so apart from this Article) power to make the following provision for the benefit of persons employed or formerly employed by the company or any of its subsidiaries, that is to say, provision in connection with the cessation or the transfer to any person of the whole or part of the undertaking of the company or that subsidiary.

The power conferred by paragraph (1) is exercisable notwithstanding that its exercise is not in the best interests of the company.

Any payment which may be made by a company under this Article may, if made before the commencement of any winding up of the company, be made out of profits of the company which are available for dividend.

This Article applies if, on an application made in accordance with rules of court to the High Court by the Director of Public Prosecutions for Northern Ireland, the Department or a chief superintendent of the Royal Ulster Constabulary there is shown to be reasonable cause to believe that any person has, while an officer of a company, committed an offence in connection with the management of the company's affairs and that evidence of the commission of the offence is to be found in any books or papers of or under the control of the company.

Paragraph (2) applies also in relation to any books or papers of a person carrying on the business of banking so far as they relate to the company's affairs, as it applies to any books or papers of or under the control of the company, except that no such order as is referred to in paragraph (2)(b) shall be made by virtue of this paragraph.

The decision of the High Court on an application under this Article is not appealable.

Any register, index, minute book or accounting records required by the Companies Orders to be kept by a company may be kept either by making entries in bound books or by recording the matters in question in any other manner.

Where any such register, index, minute book or accounting record is not kept by making entries in a bound book, but by some other means, adequate precautions shall be taken for guarding against falsification and facilitating its discovery.

If default is made in complying with paragraph (2), the company and every officer of it who is in default is liable to a fine and, for continued contravention, to a daily default fine.

The power conferred on a company by Article 671 to keep a register or other record by recording the matters in question otherwise than by making entries in bound books includes power to keep the register or other record by recording those matters otherwise than in a legible form, so long as the recording is capable of being reproduced in a legible form.

Any provision of an instrument made by a company before 1st January 1982 which requires a register of holders of the company's debentures to be kept in a legible form is to be read as requiring the register to be kept in a legible or non-legible form.

If any such register or other record of a company as is mentioned in Article 671(1), or a register of holders of a company's debentures, is kept by the company by recording the matters in question otherwise than in a legible form, any duty imposed on the company by this Order to allow inspection of, or to furnish a copy of, the register or other record or any part of it is to be treated as a duty to allow inspection of, or to furnish, a reproduction of the recording or of the relevant part of it in a legible form.

The Department may by regulations make such provision in addition to paragraph (3) as it considers appropriate in connection with such registers or other records as are mentioned in that paragraph and are kept as there mentioned; and the regulations may make modifications of provisions of this Order relating to such registers or other records.

The regulations may make provision as to the time, duration and manner of inspection, including the circumstances in which and extent to which the copying of information is permitted in the course of inspection.

The regulations may define what may be required of the company as regards the nature, extent and manner of extracting or presenting any information for the purposes of inspection or the provision of copies.

Where there is power to charge a fee, the regulations may make provision as to the amount of the fee and the basis of its calculation.

Nothing in any provision of this Order or in the regulations shall be construed as preventing a company from affording more extensive facilities than are required by the regulations or, where a fee may be charged, from charging a lesser fee than that prescribed or no fee at all.

Schedule 23 has effect with respect to the way in which offences under this Order are punishable on conviction.

In relation to an offence under a provision of this Order specified in the first column of the Schedule (the general nature of the offence being described in the second column), the third column shows whether the offence is punishable on conviction on indictment, or on summary conviction, or either in the one way or the other.

The fourth column of the Schedule shows, in relation to an offence, the maximum punishment by way of fine or imprisonment under this Order which may be imposed on a person convicted of the offence in the way specified in relation to it in the third column (that is to say, on indictment or summarily), a reference to a period of years or months being to a term of imprisonment of that duration.

The fifth column shows (in relation to an offence for which there is an entry in that column) that a person convicted of the offence after continued contravention is liable to a daily default fine; that is to say, he is liable on a second or subsequent summary conviction of the offence to the fine specified in that column for each day on which the contravention is continued (instead of the penalty specified for the offence in the fourth column of the Schedule).

For the purpose of any provision of the Companies Orders which provides that an officer of a companyF13 or other body who is in default is liable to a fine or penalty, the expression “officer who is in default” means any officer of the companyF13 or other body who knowingly and wilfully authorises or permits the default, refusal or contravention mentioned in that provision.

Summary proceedings for any offence under the Companies Orders may (without prejudice to any jurisdiction exercisable apart from this paragraph) be taken against a body corporate at any place at which the body has a place of business, and against any other person at any place at which he is for the time being.

Notwithstanding anything in Article 19(1)(a) of the M2 Magistrates' Courts (Northern Ireland) Order 1981, a magistrates' court shall have jurisdiction to hear and determine a complaint charging the commission of a summary offence under the Companies Orders provided that the complaint is made within 3 years from the time when the offence was committed and within 12 months from the date on which evidence, sufficient in the opinion of the Director of Public Prosecutions for Northern Ireland or the Department (as the case may be) to justify the proceedings, comes to his or the Department's knowledge.

For the purposes of this Article, a certificate of the Director of Public Prosecutions for Northern Ireland or the Department (as the case may be) as to the date on which such evidence as is referred to in paragraph (2) came to his or its knowledge is conclusive evidence.

Subject to paragraph (4), the Department may make regulations for prescribing anything which is authorised or required by the Companies Orders to be prescribed.

Regulations under those Orders may contain such consequential, incidental or supplementary provisions as the Department thinks appropriate.

Save as otherwise expressly provided by those Orders, all regulations under them shall be subject to negative resolution.