| From the inception of the Companies Act 2006 the formal provisions of Section 30 of the 1985 legislation has been replaced by an equivalent Section 60. The information contained in both is compatible and essentially remains unchanged and therefore the information provided below remains relevant. |
Company Names Must End with Limited
The general rule is that all companies must end with the extension “limited” or “ltd” (or optionally cyfyngedig or cyf if they are a Welsh company). In addition, they must not have these words contains anywhere else in their name. For example, “Furniture limited limited” would be rejected by Companies House.
Section 30 (60) Companies
Section 30 companies, as they are sometimes known, can omit the word limited or ltd from the end of their name. The Companies Act states that companies limited by guarantee are the only incorporated entities where this restriction can be lifted. No such exemption exists for those limited by shares.
Some company formation agents have the section 30 exemption built in to their systems and thus allow the person forming a company to select this feature. Some however, require that the agents themselves again override the system to submit the company to Companies House.
When registering a company with the section 30 provisions, the person forming the company is still required to comply with all other regulations which would apply to other persons.
Section 30 (60) and Existing Companies
Section 30 does apply to both existing companies and those in the process of currently being formed. Existing companies who meet the criteria can remove the word limited after their name by applying for a change of company name.
