Where the secretary is not acting as a secretary to a public limited company (PLC) there is no specific qualifications required for to act as a secretary. Instead the directors have a duty to ensure the person appointed as secretary has the necessary resources available to procure the maintenance of the records (other than accounting records) required under the act to allow the secretary to perform his/her duties (S.225 Companies Act 2014).
For PLCs though, there is a minimum requirement as to qualifications for the secretary as detailed in S.1112 Companies Act 2014, those being:
- That the person appointed as a secretary must have held a similar position for 3 of the last 5 years up to the date of appointment.
- That the secretary be a member of recognised body or appear to be capable of discharging the duties.