Asked by: Nigel Mills (Conservative - Amber Valley)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many companies struck off the Register of Companies in (a) England, (b) Wales, (c) Scotland and (d) Northern Ireland in (i) 2012-13, (ii) 2013-14, (iii) 2014-15, (iv) 2015-16 and (v) 2016-17 had their applications not proceed with as a result of objections received; how many of those objections were received from HM Revenue and Customs; and how many applications in each category resulted in a striking off within six months of an objection being made regardless of that objection.
Answered by Andrew Griffiths
The table below shows the number of companies struck off the register where their application for strike off was put on hold as a result of any objection; how many of those objections were received from HM Revenue and Customs and how many applications in each category resulted in a striking off within six months of an objection being made regardless of that objection.
Voluntary Dissolutions | Any Objection | HMRC Objection | |||
Financial Year | Location | Number of companies struck off that had any objection, meaning strike off was put on hold | Number of companies struck off that had any objection | Number of companies struck off that had an HMRC objection*, meaning strike off was put on hold | Number of companies struck off that had an HMRC objection* |
2012-13 | England/Wales | 6414 | 2576 | 5402 | 1833 |
2012-13 | Scotland | 438 | 192 | 362 | 127 |
2012-13 | Northern Ireland | 38 | 23 | 17 | 10 |
2013-14 | England/Wales | 15086 | 2701 | 14016 | 1871 |
2013-14 | Scotland | 1024 | 258 | 927 | 185 |
2013-14 | Northern Ireland | 94 | 36 | 82 | 25 |
2014-15 | England/Wales | 11600 | 1601 | 10270 | 597 |
2014-15 | Scotland | 847 | 127 | 737 | 43 |
2014-15 | Northern Ireland | 113 | 19 | 97 | 9 |
2015-16 | England/Wales | 7842 | 2412 | 5904 | 637 |
2015-16 | Scotland | 651 | 200 | 471 | 22 |
2015-16 | Northern Ireland | 90 | 28 | 69 | 11 |
2016-17 | England/Wales | 10151 | 5767 | 8374 | 3882 |
2016-17 | Scotland | 849 | 477 | 646 | 254 |
2016-17 | Northern Ireland | 132 | 62 | 121 | 52 |
* A very small number of objections in this category were received from the Home Office, whose objections are logged together with those from HMRC.
Asked by: Nigel Mills (Conservative - Amber Valley)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many confirmation statements his Department has challenged for inappropriate declarations of beneficial ownership since the requirement to make that declaration was introduced; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Andrew Griffiths
69,543 confirmation statements were rejected for reasons specifically related to the provision of beneficial ownership details between 1 July 2016 and 31 January 2018. However, the majority of these are corrected by the company immediately when informed. The enforcement policy of Companies House is to help companies comply with their filing requirements, rather than immediately resorting to criminal or civil sanction. This is particularly important where there is reasonably new requirement such as the requirement to register beneficial ownership.
Asked by: Nigel Mills (Conservative - Amber Valley)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many companies were struck off the Register of Companies in (a) England, (b) Wales, (c) Scotland and (d) Northern Ireland in action instigated by (i) the company and (ii) the Registrar in each of the last five full years.
Answered by Andrew Griffiths
The number of companies struck off the register in the last five years, broken down by location and instigator, are detailed in the table below:
| Number of Companies |
| Number of Companies | ||||||
Dissolved (Struck Off - instigated by Registrar) |
| Dissolved (Struck Off - instigated by the Company) | |||||||
England / Wales | Scotland | Northern Ireland | United Kingdom |
| England / Wales | Scotland | Northern Ireland | United Kingdom | |
2012-2013 | 121,265 | 6,428 | 1,271 | 128,964 |
| 138,475 | 8,341 | 1,343 | 148,159 |
2013-2014 | 130,840 | 7,006 | 1,169 | 139,015 |
| 160,166 | 9,112 | 1,494 | 170,772 |
2014-2015 | 151,908 | 8,324 | 1,508 | 161,740 |
| 175,866 | 10,071 | 1,822 | 187,759 |
2015-2016 | 162,459 | 8,800 | 1,730 | 172,989 |
| 190,732 | 11,190 | 2,023 | 203,945 |
2016-2017 | 190,217 | 10,204 | 1,878 | 202,299 |
| 197,184 | 11,692 | 1,928 | 210,804 |
Asked by: Nigel Mills (Conservative - Amber Valley)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many companies struck off the Register of Companies in (a) England, (b) Wales, (c) Scotland and (d) Northern Ireland in (i) 2012-13, (ii) 2013-14, (iii) 2014-15, (iv) 2015-16 and (v) 2016-17 had (a) never filed accounts and (b) had accounts overdue for filing at the time the application was made; how many of those proceedings were initiated by the Registrar in each category concerned cases where accounts were overdue for filing at the time the Registrar commenced action to strike off; and how many months each company in each category struck off by the Registrar had been in existence since their incorporation.
Answered by Andrew Griffiths
The number of companies struck off the register, how this was initiated, how many of those companies had (a) never filed accounts and (b) had accounts overdue for filing at the time the application for the periods concerned are shown in the tables below.
Compulsory Dissolutions | ||||
Financial Year | Location | (a) Number of companies struck off that never filed accounts | (b) Number of companies struck off that had accounts overdue at the start of strike off action | |
2012-13 | England/Wales | 76840 | 43335 | |
2012-13 | Scotland | 3949 | 2961 | |
2012-13 | Northern Ireland | 622 | 542 | |
2013-14 | England/Wales | 83718 | 47195 | |
2013-14 | Scotland | 4586 | 3152 | |
2013-14 | Northern Ireland | 725 | 450 | |
2014-15 | England/Wales | 92225 | 60923 | |
2014-15 | Scotland | 4851 | 4022 | |
2014-15 | Northern Ireland | 894 | 634 | |
2015-16 | England/Wales | 107577 | 58946 | |
2015-16 | Scotland | 5486 | 3520 | |
2015-16 | Northern Ireland | 966 | 745 | |
2016-17 | England/Wales | 114982 | 65503 | |
2016-17 | Scotland | 6516 | 4504 | |
2016-17 | Northern Ireland | 1036 | 876 | |
| ||||
Voluntary Dissolutions | ||||
Financial Year | Location | (a) Number of companies struck off that never filed accounts | (b) Number of companies struck off that had accounts overdue at the start of strike off action | |
2012-13 | England/Wales | 43276 | 16591 | |
2012-13 | Scotland | 2267 | 1105 | |
2012-13 | Northern Ireland | 386 | 158 | |
2013-14 | England/Wales | 52537 | 18644 | |
2013-14 | Scotland | 2730 | 1132 | |
2013-14 | Northern Ireland | 511 | 188 | |
2014-15 | England/Wales | 58688 | 23461 | |
2014-15 | Scotland | 3156 | 1296 | |
2014-15 | Northern Ireland | 589 | 257 | |
2015-16 | England/Wales | 60294 | 25954 | |
2015-16 | Scotland | 3345 | 1458 | |
2015-16 | Northern Ireland | 585 | 277 | |
2016-17 | England/Wales | 62252 | 24479 | |
2016-17 | Scotland | 3309 | 1534 | |
2016-17 | Northern Ireland | 590 | 288 | |
The part of the question relating to ‘how many months each company in each category struck off by the Registrar had been in existence since their incorporation’ has been provided as a separate document due to the volume of information requested.
Asked by: Nigel Mills (Conservative - Amber Valley)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many companies had their registered office in each parliamentary constituency in the tax year 2015-16.
Answered by Andrew Griffiths
Companies House does not gather information related to the constituency map of the UK, so is unable to provide the number of companies that have their registered off address in each parliamentary constituency.
Asked by: Nigel Mills (Conservative - Amber Valley)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many companies have had their financial statements rejected by Companies House as unsuitable for filing in each year since 2012-13.
Answered by Andrew Griffiths
Companies House does not hold information on the number of companies that had their financial statements rejected. However, the table below shows the number of financial statements that were rejected by Companies House as unsuitable for filing in the periods requested. These figures are not reflective of the number of companies which have had financial statements rejected, as it is possible that more than one set of financial statements were rejected for individual companies within the year in question’
Periods | Number of financial statements rejected (UK) |
2012-2013 | 76,044 |
2013-2014 | 80,031 |
2014-2015 | 82,920 |
2015-2016 | 88,075 |
2016-2017 | 81,720 |
Asked by: Nigel Mills (Conservative - Amber Valley)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many companies were struck off in 2015-16 in each parliamentary constituency in which that company's registered office was located.
Answered by Andrew Griffiths
Companies House does not gather information related to the constituency map of the UK, so is unable to provide the number of companies that have been struck off in each parliamentary constituency.
Asked by: Nigel Mills (Conservative - Amber Valley)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many prosecutions there were for financial statements which failed to comply with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006 and associated legislation and regulation in (a) 2012-13, (b) 2013-14, (c) 2014-15, (d) 2015-16 and (e) 2016-17; and what the outcome of those prosecutions was.
Answered by Andrew Griffiths
The table below details how many prosecutions there were for financial statements that failed to comply with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006 and associated legislation and regulation for the periods shown.
Number of Prosecutions for Annual Accounts (Financial Statements) UK | ||||
Period | Number of Charges Laid in Court | Convictions | Charges Withdrawn | Adjourned to Later date |
2012-2013 | 3,816 | 1,833 | 1,178 | 716 |
2013-2014 | 3,752 | 1,837 | 1,307 | 587 |
2014-2015 | 4,444 | 2,126 | 1,545 | 751 |
2015-2016 | 4,474 | 2,162 | 1,467 | 774 |
2016-2017 | 4,052 | 1,936 | 1,445 | 659 |
Charges that are withdrawn are generally because the company has brought its public record up to date.
Asked by: Nigel Mills (Conservative - Amber Valley)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what checks are undertaken on the confirmation statements presented by companies for filing at Companies House in order to meet the requirements of the Companies Acts 2006 and associated legislation and regulations.
Answered by Andrew Griffiths
Companies may file confirmation statements electronically or on paper, with 99% choosing to do so online. For confirmation statements received electronically, the online filing system contains validation checks to ensure that the document is acceptable for filing. These checks ensure it contains the correct company name and number, it has the correct the information required, the confirmation statement date is included and that it is authenticated by the company.
For confirmation statements received on paper, Companies House staff carry out a series of similar checks. Instead of checking whether a filing has been authenticated, they check that the document has been signed and the correct fee has been received.
Asked by: Nigel Mills (Conservative - Amber Valley)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many prosecutions there were for failure to comply with with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006 and associated legislation and regulation in (a) 2012-13, (b) 2013-14, (c) 2014-15, (d) 2015-16 and (e) 2016-17; and what the outcome of each of those prosecutions was.
Answered by Andrew Griffiths
The table below shows the number of prosecutions for failure to comply with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006 and associated legislation for the periods in question and the outcome of each of those prosecutions.
Number of Prosecutions For UK | ||||
Period | Number of Charges Laid in Court | Convictions | Charges Withdrawn | Adjourned to Later date |
2012-2013 | 5,662 | 2,767 | 1,674 | 716 |
2013-2014 | 5,658 | 2,896 | 1,874 | 594 |
2014-2015 | 6,704 | 3,360 | 2,261 | 761 |
2015-2016 | 6,815 | 3,456 | 2,145 | 1,093 |
2016-2017 | 6,459 | 3,182 | 2,282 | 972 |
Charges that are withdrawn are generally because the company has brought its public record up to date prior to the hearing.