On Saturday 28 March 2020, the Business Secretary, Alok Sharma, announced two measures to help charities during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. Both measures are primarily relevant to charitable companies

We await further details of both proposals.

These are:

Directors have a duty to act in the best interests of the company. A director has the following general duties under the Companies Act 2006:

In this week’s update: Guidance on virtual board and committee meetings, updates and guidance on AGMs, pre-emption principles are relaxed and a few other items.

This week, in coronavirus-related news

Following the outbreak of a global pandemic unprecedented in recent memory, the UK is now reeling from the devastating effects of the coronavirus. Small and medium-sized businesses throughout the nation will already have been forced to come to terms with this new reality, through a combination of staff illness, forced closures, supply chain disruption and loss of business.

The Coronavirus Act 2020 is now in force and Section 82 of that Act effecting the postponement of the landlord’s right to forfeit for non-payment of rent is causing consternation amongst both landlords and tenants as they seek to navigate through these uncertain times.

On 28 March, 2020, the UK Government announced that it intends to amend insolvency law to give companies breathing space and allow them to keep trading while they explore options for rescue. The changes include (a) a temporary suspension of wrongful trading by directors of UK companies for three months commencing on 1 March, 2020 and (b) the in troduction of a moratorium for companies in financial difficulty preventing creditors enforcing debts for a period of time. Full details of the proposed changes are yet to be published.

Wrongful Trading

Despite what seemed like three months ago to be something only happening a very long way away, and would hopefully dissipate as quickly as it started, the Coronavirus pandemic has well and truly arrived on our shores.

Daily news reports are revealing the far-reaching effects of the outbreak, the likes of which have not been seen for generations. In what form, and to what extent, the health, financial and social implications will be in the aftermath of the pandemic remain an unknown quantity for us all.

Given the material impact that coronavirus is having on businesses, on March 28, 2020 the government announced that legislation would be forthcoming amending UK insolvency laws to:

To assist businesses dealing with the economic impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, on March 28, 2020, the UK government followed in the footsteps of countries including Spain, Germany and Australia and announced certain changes to UK insolvency law.

This article summarises the key changes the UK government is proposing to existing insolvency laws, and considers the key restructuring tools available to assist companies during this unprecedented and challenging time.

Wrongful Trading Suspension

While in previous weeks the winding up petition list has been adjourned for a minimum of three months, this week’s list was successfully conducted by Skype. This article discusses how the hearings worked.