7. After regulation 5 insert—
5A.—(1) This regulation applies to the service of notices under these Regulations, subject to any specific provision made in these Regulations for a particular type of notice.
(2) A notice takes effect when served.
(3) A notice may be served on a person by—
(a)handing it to the person;
(b)leaving it at the person’s proper address;
(c)sending it by post to the person at that address;
(d)subject to paragraph (9), sending it to the person by electronic means.
(4) A notice to a body corporate may be given to an officer of that body.
(5) A notice to a partnership may be given to a partner or a person who has the control or management of the partnership business.
(6) For the purposes of this regulation, and section 7 of the Interpretation Act 1978 (references to service by post)(1) in its application to this regulation, the proper address of a person is—
(a)in the case of a body corporate or one of its officers, the address of the body’s registered or principal office;
(b)in the case of a partnership, a partner or person having the control or management of the partnership business, the address of the principal office of the partnership;
(c)in any other case, the person’s last known address.
(7) For the purposes of paragraph (6), the principal office of a company registered outside the United Kingdom, or of a partnership carrying on business outside the United Kingdom, is its principal office within the United Kingdom.
(8) If a person has specified an address in the United Kingdom, other than the person’s proper address within the meaning of paragraph (6), as the one at which the person or someone on the person’s behalf will accept notices of the same description as a notice under these Regulations, that address is also treated for the purposes of this regulation and section 7 of the Interpretation Act 1978 as the person’s proper address.
(9) A notice may be sent to a person by electronic means only if—
(a)the person has indicated that notices of the same description as a notice under these Regulations may be given to the person by being sent to an electronic address and in an electronic form specified for that purpose, and
(b)the notice is sent to that address in that form.
(10) A notice sent to a person by electronic means is, unless the contrary is proved, to be treated as having been given at 9 a.m. on the working day immediately following the day on which it was sent.
(11) In this regulation—
“electronic address” means any number or address used for the purposes of sending or receiving documents or information by electronic means;
“officer”, in relation to a body corporate, means a director, member of the committee of management, chief executive, manager, secretary or other similar officer of the body.”.