Asked by: Lord Mann (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of whether criminals in China are setting up companies by fraudulently registering addresses in the UK through Companies House in order to bypass Chinese restrictions on cryptocurrency trading.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Lainston - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Companies House is working increasingly closely with law enforcement to understand filing patterns. While I cannot comment on the detail of that, I am confident it will, over time, significantly improve the ability to identify and combat attempts systematically to abuse the company register.
Where Chinese nationals, or others, have registered companies using addresses which they have no authority to use, the Registrar has a suite of powers - recently strengthened by the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 - which allow the misappropriated address to be replaced with a default address. Where companies persistently fail to provide an appropriate address, the Registrar has the power to strike them off the register altogether.
Asked by: Lord Mann (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government what free and fast track process is available for a householder to remove their address from the register at Companies House when that address has been used fraudulently by a company.
Answered by Lord Offord of Garvel - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
If a person finds that their address has been used by a company without their authorisation, they should contact Companies House providing details of the address and supporting evidence. There is no charge for applying to the Registrar of Companies to remove a person’s address from the register if it has been used without consent. Companies House does not offer a fast-track process.
Asked by: Lord Mann (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many fake companies were registered in each of the last 12 months for which there are records, unbeknownst to the householder at the address used.
Answered by Lord Offord of Garvel - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Companies House does not have a means of accurately measuring the volume of companies used for illegitimate purposes or an approved statistical method to estimate it. However, Companies House does act on reports of unexpected activity that may indicate that an incorporated entity is being used illegitimately.
Following the commencement of the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 on 4 March Companies House has begun to act proactively cleanse the Register of Companies of disputed information. It has also been empowered to proactively share information with law enforcement partners where potentially illegitimate activity is identified.
Asked by: Lord Mann (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many sub-postmasters have been referred for prosecution for issues relating to the Horizon software.
Answered by Lord Offord of Garvel - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
983 Post Office-related convictions have been identified during the relevant period.
Asked by: Lord Mann (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many sub-postmasters repaid money to cover shortfalls in the first 10 years of the Post Office's use of the Horizon computer system.
Answered by Lord Offord of Garvel - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
To date, 2745 former postmasters have applied to the Horizon Shortfall Scheme for those who suffered losses due to the Horizon IT System. There were 555 postmasters as members of the original Group Litigation Order against the Post Office. There were over 900 prosecutions during the relevant period. Therefore, around 4000 people could potentially have been affected by Horizon shortfalls, albeit over a longer time period than 10 years.