The Companies (Inspection and Copying of Registers, Indices and Documents) Regulations 1991

Citation and commencement

1.  These Regulations may be cited as the Companies (Inspection and Copying of Registers, Indices and Documents) Regulations 1991 and shall come into force on 1st November 1991.

Interpretation

2.  In these Regulations:

“the Act” means the Companies Act 1985;

“business day” means, in relation to a company subject to any provision of these Regulations, any day except a Saturday or Sunday, Christmas Day, Good Friday and any other day which is a bank holiday in the part of Great Britain where that company is registered (or in the case of a company that is a body corporate to which section 723A of the Act is applied by section 718 thereof, the part of Great Britain where its principal office was situated on 5th January 1976 or if it was incorporated after that date, the part of Great Britain where its principal office was situated immediately after incorporation); and

“company” includes a body corporate to which section 723A of the Act is applied by any enactment(1).

Inspection

3.—(1) This Regulation applies to an obligation to make a register, index or document available for inspection imposed on a company by sections 169(5) (contract for purchase by company of its own shares), 175(6) (statutory declaration and auditors' report relating to payment out of capital), 191(1) (register of debenture holders), 219(1) (register of interests in shares & c), 288(3) (register of directors and secretaries), 318(7) (directors' service contracts), 356(1) (register and index of members) and 383(1) (minute books) of the Act, as well as to section 325 of, and paragraph 25 of Part IV of Schedule 13 to, the Act (register of directors' interests).

(2) The company shall:

(a) make the register, index or document available for such inspection for not less than two hours during the period between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. on each business day; and

(b) permit a person inspecting the register, index or document to copy any information made available for inspection by means of the taking of notes or the transcription of the information.

(3) Paragraph (2)(b) shall not be construed as obliging a company to provide any facilities additional to those provided for the purposes of facilitating inspection.

Registers of members and debenture holders: presentation and extraction of entries

4.—(1) This Regulation applies to a company’s register of members maintained under section 352 of the Act, to an index of the names of the company’s members maintained under section 354 thereof and to a register of debenture holders maintained under section 190 thereof.

(2) A company is not obliged:

(a) by virtue of section 356(1) of the Act to present for inspection its register of members or an index of members' names; or

(b) by virtue of section 191(1) of the Act to present for inspection a register of debenture holders maintained by it,

in a manner which groups together entries by reference to whether a member or (as the case may be) a debenture holder has given an address in a particular geographical location, is of a particular nationality, has a holding of a certain size, is a natural person or not or is of a particular gender.

(3) Nor is a company obliged:

(a) by virtue of section 356(3) of the Act, in providing a copy of a part of its register of members; or

(b) by virtue of section 191(2) of the Act, in providing a copy of a part of a register of debenture holders,

to extract entries from the register by reference to whether a member or (as the case may be) a debenture holder has given an address in a particular geographical location, is of a particular nationality, has a holding of a certain size, is a natural person or not or is of a particular gender.

Fees

5.  Schedule 2 to these Regulations prescribes the fees payable for the purposes of the provisions of the Act listed therein.

John Redwood

Minister for Corporate Affairs,

Department of Trade and Industry

2nd September 1991