Minutes

Minutes are often treated as an administrative chore. For a charitable company they are a statutory duty with a criminal sanction attached, which is not widely known.

Companies Act 2006, s.248: “Every company must cause minutes of all proceedings at meetings of its directors to be recorded”, and the records must be kept for at least ten years. Section 248(3): “If a company fails to comply with this section, an offence is committed by every officer of the company who is in default”, punishable by a fine up to level 3 plus a daily default fine. (Source: legislation.gov.uk, Companies Act 2006 s.248, read 6 August 2026.)

Beyond the legal duty, the minute is your evidence that a decision was taken properly by the body that had power to take it. See taking minutes for what to record, and record retention for how long to keep them.