Asked by: Kate Green (Labour - Stretford and Urmston)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, on how many occasions the Official Receiver has issued legal proceedings against a disqualified director for the recovery of assets in each of the last five years.
Answered by Paul Scully
Information on the issuing of legal proceedings by the Official Receiver against disqualified directors is not collated and is not readily available. As part of their duties, where the Official Receiver is liquidator, they may instruct solicitors to take recovery action against directors, whether disqualified or not. Many cases are resolved without the need to issue legal proceedings.
Asked by: Kate Green (Labour - Stretford and Urmston)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what the average (a) cost is incurred by the Insolvency Service of each director disqualification it has undertaken and (b) length of time taken by the Insolvency Service to secure a director disqualification, from the date at which the office holder's report on the director's conduct is submitted to the Insolvency Service, for each of the last five years.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Insolvency Service does not currently record the average cost of a disqualification, however where a case goes to court, the Insolvency Service’s costs are calculated on individual cases for the purpose of seeking costs.
The Insolvency Service records the average time from the date of insolvency to disqualification. The average time for each of the last five years is:
2021-22 | 22.1 months |
2020-21 | 21.7 months |
2019-20 | 19.8 months |
2018-19 | 19.9 months |
2017-18 | 20.4 months |
Asked by: Kate Green (Labour - Stretford and Urmston)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what his planned timetable is for reforms to Companies House; and if he will take steps to ensure that insolvency practitioners, when appointed to an insolvent company, are included in the category of those able to access the proposed new range of additional back office information collected by Companies House.
Answered by Paul Scully
Reform of Companies House will be included in the forthcoming Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill. We are preparing the Bill at pace and expect it to be introduced early in the session.
The Government outlined plans to enable the Registrar to proactively disclose information to law enforcement and other relevant bodies, including insolvency practitioners, in its Corporate Transparency and Register Reform White Paper.
Asked by: Kate Green (Labour - Stretford and Urmston)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of creating an administrative process to restore dissolved companies, in place of the current requirement to obtain a court order.
Answered by Paul Scully
An administrative process to restore dissolved companies already exists under section 1025 of the Companies Act 2006. Such an application can only be made by a former director or member of the company. Other parties can apply to restore a company under section 1029 of the Act, but they must demonstrate to the court that they have a relevant interest in the dissolved company. We consider it appropriate for the court to make that judgment and, therefore, have no plans to amend the existing approach.
Asked by: Kate Green (Labour - Stretford and Urmston)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many of the companies that were subject to a compulsory strike off process by Companies House were insolvent during the period 1 January 2019 to 17 May 2022.
Answered by Paul Scully
If a company does not respond during the strike-off process and there are no objections to dissolution then Companies House will not receive information on the solvency of that company prior to striking it off the register. It is therefore not possible to say how many companies struck off over the period were insolvent.
Official statistics on dissolved and struck off companies are published each quarter (in Table 1e) of ‘Incorporated Companies in the UK’, with the latest release available at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/incorporated-companies-in-the-uk-january-to-march-2022.
Asked by: Kate Green (Labour - Stretford and Urmston)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
What recent progress he has made on reforming Companies House.
Answered by Paul Scully
Reform is already underway, with a further £63 million to be invested over the Spending Review period. We will legislate for new powers for Companies House in the Economic Crime Bill to come early in the next session.