Posted in News

Over the past few weeks Wintercorn has received calls from clients and concerned business people regarding a new law requiring businesses to have full legal contact details on their business letters, including, it would seem, emails.

The law has actually been around since January 2007 and is called Statutory Instrument 2006 No. 3429, but seems to be little known outside of legal circles. There's not much publicity on the web about it and no-one seems to have been prosecuted under it yet.

As The Register states:

Every company should list its company registration number, place of registration, and registered office address on its website as a result of an update to the legislation of 1985. The information, which must be in legible characters, should also appear on order forms and in emails. Such information is already required on "business letters" but the duty is being extended to websites, order forms and electronic documents.

Companies House has a clear view of the requirements:

On all its business letters and order forms (whether in hard copy, electronic or any other form) and the company's websites, the company must show in legible lettering:

• Its place of registration and its registered number; and
• The address of its registered office. If a business letter or order form or any of the company’s websites, mentions more than one address, it is recommended that you state which is the registered office address.

This key word "electronic" would seem to mean emails as well as printed letters. This means that all communications, no matter how quick and brief, need to have this information on it. Many large firms already have email signatures and disclaimers autmaticall added to all outgoing emails.

But what happens if you are a small company, perhaps with no in-house I.T. department and no central email server?

You should probably take a look at our own legal page. We've put together all the required information in one place and most of this is replicated in the emails we send.

If you want someone to create a funky yet functional legal page, why not get in touch with us?

Obviously you should take over this with your solicitor or accountant before taking the word of a web design firm, but be quick.  You wouldn't want to be the first firm to be prosecuted, would you?