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Section 156A: Each director to be a natural person

Companies Act 2006 · 2006 c. 46View on legislation.gov.uk

Part 10: A company's directors — Chapter 1: Appointment and removal of directors

A person may not be appointed a director of a company unless the person is a natural person.

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.

An appointment made in contravention of this section is void.

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

purports to act as director, or
acts as shadow director,

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

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

A person guilty of an offence under this section is liable on summary conviction—

in England and Wales, to a fine;
in Scotland or Northern Ireland, to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale.

About this text

This legislation text comes from legislation.gov.uk. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. These source and reuse terms cover the legislation text, not Remedy's commentary.

Reuse reviewed 21 August 2026 under Open Government Licence v3.0.