In a wider sense, most companies in the UK are created under statute since the Companies Act 1985 specifies how a company may be created by a member of the public, but these companies are not called 'statutory corporations'. Often, in American legal and business documents that speak of governing bodies (e.g., a board that governs small businesses in China) these bodies are described as "creatures of statute" to inform readers of their origins and format although the national governments that created them may not term them as creatures of statute. Australia also uses the term "creature of statute" to describe some governmental bodies.