Perspectives · Company law and registers
What a minute book is, and why it belongs with the entity record
A minute book is the collected record of a company's formal decisions: the minutes of board meetings, the minutes of general meetings and the written resolutions of its members. In the UK, company law says what must be kept and for how long, and it allows the records to be kept electronically. This perspective is general information, not legal advice.
Week 38, published 10 November 2026 · Company law and registers
The definition
The record of what the company decided
A company acts through decisions of its board and its members. The minute book is where those decisions are written down: who met, what was considered, what was resolved. It is the evidence a bank, an auditor, a buyer or a court will ask for when it needs to know whether something was properly authorised.
Traditionally it was a bound volume kept at the registered office. Today it is more often a set of documents held electronically, but its purpose has not changed.
The law
Ten years, for board and members alike
Section 248 of the Companies Act 2006 requires every company to record minutes of all proceedings at meetings of its directors, and to keep those records for at least ten years from the date of the meeting.
Section 355 requires every company to keep copies of members' resolutions passed other than at general meetings, minutes of all general meetings, and details of decisions of a sole member, again for at least ten years. Failing to comply with either section is an offence committed by every officer in default.
The format
Electronic records are allowed, with a condition
Section 1135 says company records may be kept in hard copy or electronic form, and arranged as the directors think fit, provided the information is adequately recorded for future reference. Records kept electronically must be capable of being reproduced in hard copy.
In other words, a virtual minute book is lawful. What the law asks is that it is complete, that it can be found, and that it can be printed when someone needs a paper copy.
The practice
Why it belongs beside the entity record
A minute book kept apart from the rest of the company's records tends to drift. Minutes are signed but not filed, resolutions sit in an email thread, and the board pack for a meeting lives in a different folder from its minutes. Ten years is a long time to rely on a shared drive.
Kept beside the entity record, the minutes sit next to the directors who attended, the filings the decision triggered and the documents it approved. The decision and its consequences can be read together.
In Alethia
A minute book for every entity
In Alethia, each entity has its own minute book, organised into sections your workspace can rename, reorder and mark as expected. Minutes from a recorded meeting can be filed to the minute book, and a meeting that is part of the minute book is kept and cannot be deleted.
Documents are filed into sections by their category, and moving one between sections is recorded in the audit trail.
Questions
Minute books, answered
How long must board minutes be kept in the UK?
For at least ten years from the date of the meeting, under section 248 of the Companies Act 2006.
Can a minute book be kept only electronically?
Yes. Section 1135 allows company records to be kept in electronic form, as long as they can be reproduced in hard copy.
Does a company with one member still need records of its decisions?
Yes. Section 355 includes details of decisions provided by a sole member among the records a company must keep.
Keep the decisions with the company that made them
File minutes, resolutions and board packs into each entity's minute book, so the record of a decision sits beside everything it changed.