A public limited company (legally abbreviated to PLC or plc) is a kind of public company (publicly held company) in the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, and other Commonwealth jurisdictions. It is a limited (liability) company whose shares are freely sold and traded to the public, with a minimum share capital of £50,000 and the letters PLC after its name. Similar companies in the United States are called publicly traded companies.

A PLC can be either an unlisted or listed company on the stock exchanges. In the United Kingdom, a public limited company usually must include the words "public limited company" or the abbreviation "PLC" or "plc" at the end and as part of the legal company name. Welsh companies may instead choose to end their names with cwmni cyfyngedig cyhoeddus or c.c.c. However, some public limited companies (mostly nationalised concerns) incorporated under special legislation are exempted from bearing any of the identifying suffixes.

When a new company incorporates in England and Wales or in Scotland, it must register with Companies House, an Executive Agency of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. In Northern Ireland, although prior to October 2009, companies in that jurisdiction were registered with the Northern Ireland Executive's Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment, companies registrations are now handled by the Companies House like the rest of the United Kingdom.

Oliver Letwin MP FRSA (born 19 May 1956, in Hampstead)^{[citation needed]} is a British politician. A member of the Conservative Party, he is currently the Minister of State at the Cabinet Office, and a Member of Parliament (MP) representing the constituency of West Dorset. He is also the Chairman of the Conservative Research Department and Chairman of the Conservative Party's Policy Review.

Letwin is the son of William Letwin, Emeritus Professor at the London School of Economics, and conservative academic Shirley Letwin. Letwin was educated at Hall School in Hampstead and Eton College. He went on to study at Trinity College, Cambridge. Whilst a student at Cambridge, he was an active member of the Cambridge University Liberal Club. When asked about his membership of the Liberal club he explained:

"I was also a member of the Fabian Society. But I am sorry to have to tell you that this was because I was interested in the thoughts of Liberals and Fabians (and still am) rather than because I was ever a Liberal Democrat or a Fabian."

George Gideon Oliver Osborne,MP (born 23 May 1971 in Paddington, London) is a British Conservative politician. He is the Chancellor of the Exchequer of the United Kingdom, a role to which he was appointed in May 2010, and has been the Member of Parliament for Tatton since 2001.

Osborne is part of the old Anglo-Irish aristocracy, known in Ireland as the Ascendancy. He is the heir to the Osborne baronetcy (of Ballentaylor, in County Tipperary, and Ballylemon, in County Waterford).

He was educated at St Paul's School and Magdalen College, University of Oxford, before entering politics.

Osborne is the eldest of four sons. His father, Sir Peter Osborne, 17th Baronet, co-founded the firm of fabric and wallpapers designers Osborne & Little. His mother is Felicity Alexandra Loxton-Peacock, the daughter of artist Lady Clarisse Loxton Peacock.

Originally named Gideon Oliver, he changed his name to George when he was 13. In an interview in July 2005, Osborne said: "It was my small act of rebellion. I never liked it. When I finally told my mother she said, 'Nor do I'. So I decided to be George after my grandfather, who was a war hero. Life was easier as a George; it was a straightforward name."

Andrew Abraham (born 16 July 1964 in North London, England)^{[citation needed]} is an English singer. He was the runner-up in the second UK series of TV talent show The X Factor in 2005 to Shayne Ward, and also represented the United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest 2008.

Before applying for The X Factor, Abraham was a refuse collector. Prior to this he worked as a bus driver for Arriva London North based at Palmers Green bus garage. Abraham has two children by his wife Denise, a daughter called Tara and a son called Jacob. He is of Grenadian descent.

Abraham was narrowly beaten to the top spot on The X Factor by Shayne Ward by 1.2% of the national public vote. Abraham was mentored throughout the competition by Sharon Osbourne although fellow judges Simon Cowell and Louis Walsh also praised the singer highly throughout the competition. Other performers who came to prominence in the same series of The X Factor were finalists Journey South and quarter-finalist Chico Slimani.

On 26 March 2006, Abraham's debut album entered the UK album chart at number two, selling 176,000 copies in its first week and being beaten to the top spot by Journey South.

Doug Richard is a United Kingdom based Californian entrepreneur and specialist in technology transfer, commercialisation, and business incubation. He came to prominence as a result of the BBC programme Dragons' Den, where he appeared as a 'dragon', or investor in the first two series. Although he made 2 investments during the first series, he did not make any investments in the 2nd series, and thereafter stepped down to advise the investment of funds on behalf of Tudor Investments, a US based hedge fund that began investing in early stage high technology startups. He remains the only Dragon not to invest throughout a series.

He founded and sold two companies: Visual Software and ITAL Computers. He is also non executive director of Brightpearl and the Non Executive Chairman of BeatsDigital. Between 1996 and 2000 Doug was President and CEO of Micrografx, a US publicly quoted software company.

In May 2006, he received an honorary Queen's Award for Enterprise Promotion - the only honorary awardee that year - for his work promoting, developing and helping entrepreneurs. as director and co-founder, Library House in Cambridge.