05 May 2010
Why should you care that “The Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies and Credit Unions Act 2010” is now law?
This Act, with its somewhat lengthy title, makes changes to the Industrial and Provident Societies Act 1965 (the 1965 Act) which will affect all Industrial and Provident Societies and this will include a large number of Registered Social Landlords or RSLs.
The Act is now on the statute books and its provisions are to come into force in the future, on dates that will be set out in Commencement Orders in due course. The Act is not as long as its title might suggest and will make the following changes:
- Industrial and Provident Societies will no longer exist, instead each society will be either (a) a Co-operative Society or (b) a Community Benefit Society or (c) a Pre-2010 Act Society.
- Societies registered under the 1965 Act will be subject to the Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986 as if they were companies. In other words, Board or Management Committee members of a society will be open to disqualification actions as if they were company directors.
- Societies registered under the 1965 Act may also be made (following consultation by the Treasury) subject to additional company law provisions, adjusted as appropriate for Societies, relating to:
- Investigations of companies
- Company names
- Dissolution and restoration to the register
- All relevant Industrial and Provident Society legislation is re-named to refer to Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies instead.