Meetings and filing requirements Section 37 and Schedule 14: Meetings of companies and other bodies
Section 37 and Schedule 14 make provision about qualifying meetings of qualifying bodies.
	Paragraph 1 of Schedule 14 make provision as to the meaning of a "qualifying body".
	Paragraph 2 makes provision as to the meaning of the "relevant period". The relevant period begins with 26 March 2020 and end with the 30 September 2020. The Secretary of State (or, in certain cases, the Scottish Ministers or the Department for the Economy in Northern Ireland) may by regulations shorten or extend the end of the relevant period. If regulations are extending the relevant period, they must do so by no more than three months at a time and the period must not be extended beyond 5 April 2021. This is intended to ensure that the temporary flexibilities provided for in Schedule 14 only apply for so long as they are needed to enable bodies to hold meetings in a manner consistent with the need to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
	Paragraph 3 makes provision as to the manner in which AGMs and other meetings may be held during the relevant period. It provides that a meeting need not be held at a particular place; that meetings may be held and votes may be cast by electronic or other means; that the meeting may be held without a quorum of participants having to be together in one place; and that members do not have the right to attend in person, to participate other than by voting, or to vote by particular means. Members will however continue to have a right to vote by some means.
	These temporary provisions are intended to ensure that qualifying bodies are able to hold AGMs and other meetings in a manner consistent with the need to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The requirements of a qualifying body’s constitution or rules, and any relevant provisions in legislation, have effect subject to these temporary provisions.
	Paragraph 4 enables the appropriate national authority to by regulations make further or connected provision, or to make provision about any notice or other document relating to a meeting held by a qualifying body during the relevant period. The power may be used to make provision to disapply a qualifying body’s constitution or rules, and to disapply or modify any relevant legislative provision.
	Paragraph 5 makes provision to extend the period within which a qualifying body must hold an AGM. It applies in circumstances where a qualifying body was or is required to hold an AGM before the end of a period expiring during the period between 26 March to 30 September 2020. It has the effect of giving businesses until the end of that period to hold their AGM.
	Paragraph 6 confers a power to make regulations to extend the period within which a qualifying body must hold an AGM. The power is exercisable in relation to qualifying bodies with a requirement to hold an AGM during a period which overlaps with the relevant period ("the overlapping period"). Regulations made under this paragraph may not be used to extend the period for holding an AGM by more than 8 months. In the case of a qualifying body to which paragraph 5 applies, the period beginning with the due period and ending with the relevant period will be the "overlapping period" (see paragraph 5(2)), and so regulations made under this paragraph will have the effect of further extending the period within which the body must hold its AGM.