If a company was incorporated under the Companies Act 1985 and has not changed its articles from Table A, is it compulsory for it to have an appointed company secretary?

This Q&A assumes that the company in question is a private company limited by shares.

Upon incorporation of a company, the default statutory version of articles of association will apply unless the company adopts its own, customised articles.

The version of default articles that applies to any given company is the version in force at the date that the company was registered. Newer versions or amendments to the default statutory articles are not automatically applied to existing companies; the articles will remain unchanged unless and until a company takes action to amend them or adopt new articles. This means that older, historical versions of the model articles and Table A will continue to have relevance to some companies.

If a company was incorporated under the Companies Act 1985 (CA 1985) with default statutory articles and has since not amended them or adopted new articles, the relevant version of the Table A articles