How to simplify company law (UK)

A stakeholder consultation, with a company law and commercial law focus, is launched today by the UK Red Tape Challenge. D. Trnka comments that this new approach can be seen as "an interesting example of how social networks can be used for crowd-sourcing efforts to improve regulatory framework" and is therefore quite worth checking out. Quote from press release "Companies of all shapes and sizes have today been asked for their views on how to tackle unnecessary bureaucracy in company and commercial law.

For the next three weeks, the latest phase of the Red Tape Challenge will focus on more than 120 company law regulations, guidance and enforcement processes that businesses deal with on a daily basis.

The campaign asks for a variety of suggestions about how regulations can be improved, simplified or abolished, whilst maintaining a company law framework that gives companies the flexibility to compete and develop effectively.

Examples of areas open for comment include:

• Internal workings of companies and partnerships: Rules on shares and share capital, requirement to hold information at business premises and rules on meetings and resolutions.
• Accounts and returns: The content, form and auditing requirements of financial accounts and other reports.
• Business names: The rules covering company names.
• Disclosure of company information: The regulations covering the information companies must supply to the official register."

See also new group on LinkedIn