Part I Formation and Registration of Companies; Juridical Status and Membership

Chapter II Company Names

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;

F1bb

which includes, at any place in the name, the expressions “investment company with variable capital” or “open-ended investment company” or their Welsh equivalents (“cwmni buddsoddi â chyfalaf newidiol” and “cwmni buddsoddiant penagored” respectively);

F2bbb

which includes, at any place in the name, the expression “limited liability partnership” or its Welsh equivalent (“partneriaeth atebolrwydd cyfyngedig”);

C1c

which is the same as a name appearing in the registrar’s index of company names;

C2d

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

C2e

which in the opinion of the Secretary of State is offensive.

C3C42

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

C5a

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 M1Local Government Act 1972 or the M2Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973, the Common Council of the City of London or the Council of the Isles of Scilly.

C4C63

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”), F3. . .

  • “public limited company” or its Welsh equivalent (“cwmni cyfyngedig cyhoeddus”); F4. . .

  • F5“investment company with variable capital” or its Welsh equivalent (“cwmni buddsoddi â chyfalaf newidiol”);

F6and

“open-ended investment company” or its Welsh equivalent (“cwmni buddsoddiant penagored”);

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.