Yes, at present, company law requires every limited company to have a formally appointed company secretary. In fact, all private limited companies must have at least one director along with a company secretary and where the company has a sole director, that director cannot also be the company secretary. Where there are two or more directors, one may be appointed as the secretary.
In all companies, whether public or private, the secretary performs an important role in ensuring that the company meets statutory requirements. For public companies these may be onerous tasks requiring specialist up to date knowledge of company law. As such, public companies are required to appoint a suitably qualified company secretary. This is not necessary for private companies.