Statutory Information on Stationery

Companies are obliged by law to publish certain details on their stationery. The rules apply not just to business letters, but to other documents such as cheques and order forms. Business cards, which are often handed over long before any formal correspondence begins, are also caught.

A limited company trading under its own name must:

• paint or affix its registered name conspicuously and legibly to the outside of every office or place in which its business is carried on;
• print its registered name on:
• business letters;
• notices and other official publications;
• bills of exchange, promissory notes, endorsements, cheques and orders for money or goods purporting to be signed by or on behalf of the company;
• bills of parcels, invoices, receipts and letters of credit.
• print its place of registration, registered number and registered office address on all business letters and order forms.

A limited company trading under a business name must:

• state its full corporate name (i.e. its registered name) and an address in Great Britain at which service of any document relating in any way to the business will be effective (usually the registered office address) clearly and legibly on:
• business letters;
• written orders for goods or services to be supplied to the business;
• invoices and receipts issued in the course of the business;
• written demands for payments of debts arising in the course of the business.
• display the information listed above at any premises where it carries on business and deals with customers or suppliers.

Registered office address

• If the registered office address is printed at the top of your notepaper, it is sufficient to print at the bottom of the page "registered office as above".
• If there is more than one address at the top of the page, even including the registered office, or if the registered office address is not printed at the top of the page, then the full address of the registered office, and the words "registered office" printed next to that address, should be printed at the bottom of the page.

Directors' names

Directors' names should not appear in any form (other than as a signatory) on any business letter unless the names of all the directors are stated.

June 2005