The Instant Company Secretary

Overview

As an official officer in a business, the company secretary may be criminally liable if they don't carry out their duties correctly.

Also, company secretarial duties must be undertaken whether there is someone in the business who actually holds that title or not. The responsibility to fulfil the duties is still there.  These include ensuring:

• Compliance by the company and its officers with all statutory and other regulatory requirements
• Maintenance of the statutory records and ling data with Companies House within specified time limits
• Interfacing with the shareholders or guarantors, convening general meetings, drafting and recording resolutions, dealing with shares etc.
• Servicing board meetings and compiling the legally required minutes
• Providing a company-wide focal point for legal matters and interpretation, and a logical point of contact for third parties
• Providing the board with accurate and timely advice.

This book deals with all the requirements in a practical, accessible, no-nonsense way. The topics covered in this indespensible guide include:

• Anti-bribery
• Modern slavery
• Gender pay reporting
• Tax evasion legislation

and the new requirements regarding Registers of Persons of Significant Control.

The refreshing approach to tackling these challenges makes it an indispensable and practical guide to the whole range of issues with which the person performing the legally required duties of the Company Secretary must comply.

The author

David Martin, FCIS, FCIPD, FIoD is Director of Buddenbrook Consultancy which he founded in 1985 following a takeover of the FTSE250 listed PLC of which he was Director and Company Secretary for nearly 10 years.
He regularly presents business seminars, has written over 60 business books, was for nearly 20 years a CBI member of the Employment Tribunals panel, a member of the Registrar of Companies Wider Users Committee and was involved in the consultation process that led to the Companies Act 2006.

Author

David Martin

David M Martin, FCIS, FCIPD, FloD

David is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Secretaries, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, and the Institute of Directors.

He held senior positions with Xerox (USA) and SGB Group plc, and for nearly 10 years was Director/Company Secretary of Maynards PLC (one of the then FTSE 250) where as well as the normal range of corporate duties, he designed one of the first employee share ownership schemes, implemented a Group wide system of Consultative Committees and complied several employee reports, annual reports and employee newsletters several of which won national awards.

Since 1985 when Maynards was taken over, he has run his own business Consultancy – Buddenbrook – carrying out various projects including corporate and internal communications, general administration and personnel documentation, etc, for a range of client companies including Filofax, British Aerospace, Safeway, Northern Foods, Boots, Trebor Bassett and others.

For 14 years he has been a CBI representative on the panel of Employment Tribunal members, is a member of the Registrar of Companies’ Wider Users committee and was part of the consultative process for the Companies Act 2006.

He is a regular seminar and conference speaker on company and employment law and personal skills and has written over 60 business books, some of which have been published by Thorogood. The ‘clear communication’ themes of many of his seminars are reflected in his books, many of which have been translated into several foreign languages as well as being available in all English speaking markets in the world.