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Section 520: Company's duties in relation to statement

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

Part 16: Audit — Chapter 4: Removal, resignation, etc of auditors

This section applies where a company receives from an auditor ("A") who is ceasing to hold office a statement under section 519 except where—

the company is a non-public interest company, and
the statement includes a statement to the effect that A considers that none of the reasons for A's ceasing to hold office, and no matters (if any) connected with A's ceasing to hold office, need to be brought to the attention of members or creditors of the company (as required by section 519(3B)).

Where this section applies, the company must within 14 days of the receipt of the statement either—

send a copy of it to every person who under section 423 is entitled to be sent copies of the accounts, or
apply to the court.

If it applies to the court, the company must notify the auditor of the application.

If no such direction is made the company must send copies of the statement to the persons mentioned in subsection (2)(a) within 14 days of the court's decision or, as the case may be, of the discontinuance of the proceedings.

In the event of default in complying with this section an offence is committed by every officer of the company who is in default.

In proceedings for such an offence it is a defence for the person charged to show that he took all reasonable steps and exercised all due diligence to avoid the commission of the offence.

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

on conviction on indictment, to a fine;
on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum.

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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.