The Government is proposing to dispose of the role of company secretaries, the Midland president of the international Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators has warned.

Jon Baldwin, who has just been appointed, said he was "horrified" at the proposal.

"The start of the Enron trials is a timely reminder of just how bad failures in corporate governance can get," he said.

"Yet we in the UK are about the strip our companies of one of the key guardians of good corporate governance. Company secretaries are currently a key element in the corporate governance structure.

"Section 283 of the Companies Act 1985 states that "every company shall have a secretary"."

However, the recent company law review and draft bill proposes that "a private company is not required to have a company secretary".

Mr Baldwin said companies that did not appoint a company secretary increased the chance that directors would overlook the requirement for the maintenance of statutory registers and filing of statutory returns.

The ICSA claims compliance levels could fall and Companies House records become increasingly deficient, if company secretaries are abolished.

However, Mr Baldwin admitted that the change that might help small companies providing the role of company secretary is preserved in large private concerns.

"Small and medium sized companies with turnover less than £5.6 million are already exempt from certain accounting and statutory audit requirements and we propose that the same criteria be used to exempt small and medium sized companies from the requirement to appoint a company secretary," he said.