Nora Bullock discusses the potential reform of limited partnership law
The Department of Business Enterprise, Regulation & Regulatory Reform issued a consultation paper (CP) on the reform of limited partnership law last summer. The CP contains a draft Legislative Reform Order (LRO) under the Legislative Regulatory Reform Act 2006, which repeals the Limited Partnerships Act 1907 (LPA 1907) in its entirety and adds amended limited partnership provisions to the Partnership Act 1890. It also proposes that the Companies Act 2006 (CA 2006) (Pts 5 (a company’s name) and 35 (the registrar of companies) should apply to limited partnerships.
These proposed amendments will, if agreed, come into force on 1 October 2009 and they reflect to some extent recommendations made by the law commission and the Scottish Law Commission. However, surprisingly the government does not take forward one of the law commissions’ key proposals which was that all partnerships should by default have legal personality. Accordingly, Scottish limited partnerships (which, unlike English limited partnerships, do have legal personality) will continue to be used in “tiered” partnership structures and other
