Section 156A | Each director to be a natural person ^F1

(1)A person may not be appointed a director of a company unless the person is a natural person.^F1

(2)Subsection (1) does not prohibit the holding of the office of director by a natural person as a corporation sole or otherwise by virtue of an office.^F1

(3)An appointment made in contravention of this section is void.^F1

(4)Nothing in this section affects any liability of a person under any provision of the Companies Acts or any other enactment if the person—^F1

(a)purports to act as director, or^F1

(b)acts as shadow director,^F1

although the person could not, by virtue of this section, be validly appointed as a director.

(5)This section has effect subject to section 156B (power to provide for exceptions from requirement that each director be a natural person).^F1

(6)If a purported appointment is made in contravention of this section, an offence is committed by—^F1

(a)the company purporting to make the appointment,^F1

(b)where the purported appointment is of a body corporate or a firm that is a legal person under the law by which it is governed, that body corporate or firm, and^F1

(c)every officer of a person falling within paragraph (a) or (b) who is in default.^F1

For this purpose a shadow director is treated as an officer of a company.

(7)A person guilty of an offence under this section is liable on summary conviction—^F1

(a)in England and Wales, to a fine;^F1

(b)in Scotland or Northern Ireland, to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale.^F1