Company secretary cost in the UK depends on the work required. Basic filing packages and ongoing board support cover different needs. In the hypothetical 2026/27 example below, an £85,000 salary costs about £98,321 before recruitment and other extras. Compare outsourced quotes against the same scope, internal workload and VAT treatment.
An outsourced company secretary’s fee buys an agreed service or allocation of time. To compare it with employment, establish what work each option will deliver, what stays with your team and what happens when demand exceeds the plan.
This guide uses published 2026 salary benchmarks and UK employer rates for the 2026/27 tax year, from 6 April 2026 to 5 April 2027. Its worked costs are hypothetical budgeting examples, not BG prices or a claim that outsourcing is always cheaper.
Why do company secretary cost quotes vary so much?
A basic compliance package and continuing board support can cover very different work. Compare the tasks, access and exclusions before comparing their prices.
For example, London Registrars’ private-company package advertises £419 plus VAT per year for companies with up to 10 directors or shareholders. Its stated exclusions include managing board meetings, preparing minutes or resolutions, and specialist consultancy. This is one provider’s advertised offer, checked on 16 October 2026, not a market-wide benchmark or a BG quote.
Check filing charges separately. Companies House charges £50 for a company’s first confirmation statement filed online or through software in a 12-month payment period. A confirmation statement confirms the company information held by Companies House. Ask whether the provider’s price includes that charge and its work preparing the filing.
For continuing board and committee support, request a proposal against an annual work schedule. The £900 day rate later in this guide is an assumed input for testing a budget, not an observed market rate.
What do current company secretary salary benchmarks show?
Use a benchmark that matches the role you are recruiting. A company secretarial assistant supporting a team and a company secretary leading governance for a listed group should not sit in the same salary comparison.
The following are selected annual salary ranges from recruiters’ 2026 guides, checked on 16 October 2026. The FTSE 250 rows relate to companies in that stock-market index.
| Role and market | Location | Published annual range | Source |
| Company secretary, commerce and industry; 3–5 years’ experience band | London | £85,000–£100,000 | Morgan McKinley |
| Company secretary, financial services; 3–5 years’ experience band | London | £120,000–£150,000 | Morgan McKinley |
| Assistant company secretary, commerce FTSE 250; 4–5 years’ experience | London / regional | £60,000–£80,000 / £50,000–£75,000 | Barclay Simpson |
| Company secretary, commerce FTSE 250 | London / regional | £140,000–£220,000 / £100,000–£180,000 | Barclay Simpson |
These are selected benchmarks, not a UK-wide average or a complete range for the profession. Barclay Simpson describes its figures as base salaries; Morgan McKinley says its guide typically reports base salary. Budget bonuses and benefits separately.
The sources do not use identical role categories. Morgan McKinley’s experience bands and Barclay Simpson’s company-type groupings should not be averaged into a supposedly more accurate number. Neither public table provides a sample count for each displayed salary range.
Why do salary websites give such different answers?
Start by checking whether they are answering the same question. A figure may describe advertised vacancies, reported pay, recruitment placements or a recruiter’s market estimate. Then check seniority, location, sector, hours and whether it includes variable pay.
Even the same provider can display a broad summary alongside more specific figures. Morgan McKinley’s London company secretary calculator shows a headline range of £85,000–£150,000, while its detailed table separates commerce and industry from financial services. Use the row matching your vacancy, rather than treating the headline as a universal budget.
For your shortlist, write a one-paragraph role description before choosing a salary range. Specify the organisation type, entities, board and committee work, reporting responsibilities, management duties and expected access to the chair. Ask a recruiter to explain how their benchmark matches that remit.
If a source does not disclose enough to make that comparison, treat it as a lead for further checking. Do not discard a figure merely because it is lower, or assume that a higher figure proves the role is more demanding.
What should an in-house company secretary budget include?
Build two totals: the recurring cost and the first-year cost. The latter includes one-off recruitment and onboarding expenses. Show colleagues’ time separately, so the board can distinguish cash expenditure from existing staff capacity.
For 2026/27, HMRC’s standard category A employer National Insurance rate is 15% above the £5,000 annual secondary threshold. This threshold is the earnings level above which that employer charge applies. Special categories and reliefs can change the result.
For a qualifying-earnings pension scheme using the minimum employer contribution, the rate is 3%. Qualifying earnings are the earnings within the band used for this calculation. The 2026/27 annual band is £6,240–£50,270. Use the actual scheme and employment terms when budgeting: the minimum is not a prediction of the pension needed to recruit your preferred candidate.
Add the benefits you intend to offer, relevant employer charges, professional subscriptions, training, systems and equipment. Assess whether the Apprenticeship Levy applies. Normal paid leave is already within an annual salary; price any additional cover separately instead of counting the same salary twice.
Employment Allowance can reduce eligible employers’ annual National Insurance liability by up to £10,500. It is an employer-level allowance, not a fresh discount for every hire. Establish whether any remains available.
How does hiring compare with an outsourced day rate?
Compare the same period and agreed work, then add the employment costs, supplier extras and internal time that each option requires. The following model shows how to do that; it does not establish equivalent capacity.
Hypothetical example. A business is comparing a full-time £85,000 hire with 90 days of outsourced support at an assumed £900 per day. The external scope covers an agreed annual schedule of board and committee preparation, attendance, minutes and routine entity work. Extra transactions, additional meetings and work beyond that schedule require separate pricing.
The table assumes that 90 days can deliver that defined scope. It does not assume that 90 days replace the whole capacity of a full-time employee. Any other work expected of the employee must be allocated and costed before deciding between the options.
The employment estimate assumes a full year, standard category A National Insurance, no salary sacrifice, no available Employment Allowance, and an enrolled employee whose employer pays 3% of qualifying earnings into their pension. Salary sacrifice means exchanging some salary for a benefit such as an employer pension contribution. The recruitment fee is an assumed 20% of salary; the external onboarding charge is an assumed £2,000. Neither is a market benchmark.
| Cost over 12 months | In-house hire | Outsourced support |
| Salary or delivery fee | £85,000 | 90 days × £900 = £81,000 |
| Employer National Insurance | (£85,000 − £5,000) × 15% = £12,000 | Included in the supplier’s assumed fee |
| Employer pension | (£50,270 − £6,240) × 3% = £1,320.90 | Included in the supplier’s assumed fee |
| Recurring direct cost modelled | £98,320.90 | £81,000 |
| One-off recruitment / onboarding | £85,000 × 20% = £17,000 | £2,000 |
| First-year direct cost modelled | £115,320.90 | £83,000 |
| Existing staff time, shown separately | 8 hours/month × 12 × £75 = £7,200 | 12 hours/month × 12 × £75 = £10,800 |
| Recurring subtotal including valued internal time | £105,520.90 | £91,800 |
| First-year subtotal including valued internal time | £122,520.90 | £93,800 |
The internal hours cover colleagues other than the proposed hire. Their hours and £75 fully loaded hourly value are assumptions. That value includes the employment costs allocated to an hour of their time. The higher external coordination allowance represents extra briefing and review in this scenario; test it against the actual workflow. These amounts value existing employees’ time and are not necessarily additional cash expenditure.
The table uses annualised planning calculations, not a payroll quotation; pay-period thresholds and rounding can produce small differences. It excludes VAT, bonus, additional benefits, levy, equipment, training, absence cover, employee onboarding, filing charges, unpriced extra work and exit costs. Add each where relevant. It is a starting model, not a complete quote.
The supplier fee assumes an organisation delivering through its own employed staff and bearing their employment costs. Do not transfer that assumption to an individual contractor’s quoted rate. Check the actual engagement, payroll responsibilities and any formal office-holder appointment before finalising the budget. HMRC’s guidance explains why the underlying arrangement matters.
What could change the cost comparison?
VAT recovery, the number of external days and the pension offer can each change the result. Test them alongside vacancy and continuity arrangements before choosing a model.
VAT recovery
The UK standard VAT rate is 20%. If it applies to the hypothetical £81,000 annual service fee and none can be recovered, it adds £16,200. The outsourced recurring cost, including the £10,800 of internal time, becomes £108,000, compared with £105,520.90 for the employment model including its £7,200 of internal time.
That reverses the recurring-cost comparison before other exclusions. At 50% VAT recovery, the outsourced subtotal would be £99,900. The two subtotals become equal at approximately 15.3% recovery of the supplier VAT, holding all other assumptions constant. The calculation is (£108,000 − £105,520.90) ÷ £16,200.
Confirm what VAT your organisation can recover; registration does not by itself establish full recovery. Check VAT on recruitment and onboarding charges separately for the first year.
Demand for more days
Using the recurring figures above before VAT, the indicative cost-equivalence point is (£105,520.90 − £10,800) ÷ £900 = 105.25 external days a year. At 106 days, the external fee plus assumed internal time exceeds the modelled employment cost.
This is arithmetic, not a staffing recommendation. It assumes the same day rate and internal coordination cost as demand rises, with no new fees or employment costs. It says nothing about whether the employee and provider offer equivalent capacity, expertise or availability.
The actual pension offer
Suppose the employer instead offers 5% of the entire £85,000 salary. That hypothetical pension contribution is £4,250, or £2,929.10 more than the minimum-scheme assumption. Add the difference to the employment totals. This is not a suggested market benefit: it shows why a different pension basis changes the budget.
Recruitment gaps and continuity
Model a vacancy as a separate scenario using the actual gap, temporary support, management time and handover required. If the employee is not yet being paid, offset the relevant salary and employer costs when comparing the same calendar period. Adding a full year’s salary and the full cost of pre-start cover would overstate the total.
Test provider continuity too: who covers the lead, what response is available between scheduled days, and which charges change during an absence? Avoid assigning a monetary value to avoided governance failures without evidence. Record that exposure as a decision risk alongside the budget.
How should you compare outsourced company secretary fees?
A usable proposal states the work, charging basis, availability and exclusions. Ask for the following in writing:
- Scope: entities, meetings, deliverables, senior advice and responsibilities retained internally.
- Time and access: what constitutes a day or hour, minimum bookings, attendance, preparation, follow-up and availability between meetings.
- Extras: onboarding, projects, urgent work, travel, systems, filing charges, VAT and the approval process for additional charges.
- Continuity and exit: cover, notice periods, handover and access to records.
Ask each option to cover the same annual work schedule. Divide the proposed external days between meeting cycles, recurring entity work and annual reporting, then identify time for unexpected requests. A plan that uses every day for scheduled delivery leaves no allowance for additional work. Record how any additional capacity from an employee would be used before treating it as unnecessary cost.
For a monthly retainer, meaning a recurring fee for agreed support, establish what is included and how work beyond that allowance is priced. For a day rate, establish how many days the agreed work is expected to require. Neither figure is useful without its boundaries.
Keep service delivery and formal appointment separate. Paying a provider for agreed work does not itself appoint the provider or its staff as company secretary. Agree who will hold the office, where an appointment is required.
What else should you know before setting the budget?
Separate legal appointment requirements, tax treatment and the amount of support you need. These questions resolve common points of confusion.
Do UK companies have to appoint a company secretary?
A UK public company must have a company secretary. A private company does not need one unless its articles of association, its constitutional rules, require it. Companies House explains these requirements. Buying a service and making a formal appointment are separate steps.
Is outsourcing a company secretary always cheaper?
No. Compare the agreed work, internal coordination, supplier extras and irrecoverable VAT with the full employment budget. In this article’s hypothetical model, adding wholly irrecoverable VAT makes the outsourced recurring subtotal higher. The comparison also depends on whether each option can deliver the work and access required.
How much does an £85,000 company secretary cost to employ?
In this hypothetical 2026/27 model, salary, employer National Insurance and the minimum qualifying-earnings pension total £98,320.90 a year. This assumes category A National Insurance, an enrolled employee, no salary sacrifice and no available Employment Allowance. Recruitment, benefits, cover and the other listed exclusions require separate budgeting.
Which arrangement should you choose?
Choose an arrangement that covers the work, access and continuity your organisation needs, then compare its first-year and recurring costs.
A permanent employee may be the better choice where the organisation needs sustained involvement across management and board decisions and can use the available capacity. An outsourced arrangement can be worth testing where the required work, access and response expectations can be specified. This can include fractional support provided on an ongoing part-time basis. A combined approach may retain internal leadership while adding specialist or delivery support.
Before approving a budget, ask: what work is covered, what remains unpriced, which assumptions could change the decision, and who will test them?
Beyond Governance’s CoSec-on-Demand service provides company secretarial and governance support through an employed team, including interim, retained or fractional, and meeting and minutes support. Bring your role description, annual calendar, entity list and retained responsibilities to the discussion so a scoped proposal can be compared with the cost of hiring.
