Regulations made under the Companies Act 2006 require a company to display its name at its registered office and other places of business, on business documents and on websites. The purpose of the regulations is that the legal identity of every company should be revealed to anyone who have, or may wish to have, dealings with it.
The requirements are included in the «Company, Limited Liability Partnership and Business (Names and Trading Disclosures) Regulations 2015 (SI2015/17).
10.1 Display your company name
Every company, unless it has been continuously dormant since incorporation, must display a sign with its registered name at:
its registered office
any inspection place
at any location at which it carries on business (unless it is primarily used for living accommodation
It must also include its registered name in all business communications (hard copy and electronic).
10.2 Company name sign
You must display a sign with your company name:
in characters that can be read with the naked eye
in such a way that visitors to that office, place or location may easily see it
continuously, but if the location is shared by 6 or more companies, each such company must either display its registered name for at least 15 continuous seconds at least once in every 3 minutes, or make its registered name available for inspection on a register by any visitor.
10.3 Company name in communications
You must include your company»s registered name in all forms of business correspondence and documentation, whether in hard copy or electronic, including:
business letters, notices and other official publications
business emails
bills of exchange, promissory notes, endorsements and order forms
cheques purporting to be signed by or on behalf of the company
orders for money, goods or services purporting to be signed by or on behalf of the company bills of parcels, invoices and other demands for payment, receipts and letters of credit
10.4 Company name on websites
Every company must disclose its registered name on its websites. You don»t need to include the company name on every page but it must be visible and easily read.
10.5 Exceptions to needing to display a company»s name
There are 2 exceptions:
an insolvent company, such as a company in respect of which a liquidator, administrator, or administrative receiver has been appointed is not required to display its registered name at any premises which are also the place of business of those insolvency specialists
if every director of the company is one whose residential address cannot be disclosed by the registrar to a credit reference agency, then the company does not have to display its registered name at any place at which it carries on business (but this exception does not extend to the company»s registered office or inspection place for the company»s records)
10.6 Additional information you must disclose
The company must display the following on all its business letters, business emails, order forms and websites:
the part of the United Kingdom in which the company is registered (i.e. England and Wales, or Wales, or Scotland, or Northern Ireland)
the company»s registered number
the address of the company»s registered office
if a company is exempt from the requirement to use «limited» in its name, the fact that it is a limited company
if the company is a community interest company which is not a public company, the fact that it is a limited company
if it is an investment company as defined by section 833 of the Companies Act 2006, the fact that it is this type of company
if it is a company which has chosen to display its share capital, it must display the amount of paid up share capital
10.7 Information the company must provide on request
If anyone with whom the company deals in the course of business makes a written request for:
the address of its registered office
the address of any place of inspection
the type of company records kept at the registered office or inspection place
The company must provide this information, in writing, within 5 working days.
10.8 Displaying directors» names
A company doesn»t have to state the directors» names on its business letters unless it chooses to do so. However, if it does decide to include the names then it must state the names of all its directors. In other words, a company cannot be selective about which directors» names it shows. It must show all of them or none of them.
10.9 Charitable companies
Section 68 of the Charities Act 2011 provides that a charitable company whose name does not include the word «charity» or «charitable» must state that it is a charity on company documents, including business letters, notices, invoices, bills of exchange, promissory notes and on any conveyances it executes. The relevant legislation in Scotland is the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005.