Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department is taking against companies which circumvent the requirement for businesses to disclose information to Companies House on persons with significant control in that company by registering another company rather than an individual as the person with significant control of that company.

The Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015 (the Act) established rules governing what a company must enter in its register of people with significant control (PSC) and what it must file with Companies House. Companies can legitimately register a company as their PSC if that company meets the conditions of control, is the first legal entity in a company’s ownership chain and they are subject to their own disclosure requirements. (A full explanation of the rules can be found in BEIS guidance.)

It is an offence for anyone knowingly or recklessly to deliver a document or statement to Companies House that is misleading, false or deceptive in a material way. A person guilty of an offence under this section is liable to imprisonment, to a term not exceeding two years, or a fine, or both.