§ 24. Sir BERTRAM FALLEasked the President of the Board of Trade whether he will set up an investigation for the purpose of satisfying himself that the departments of registrar and solicitor to the Board of Trade are organised in such a way as to be able to deal promptly and efficiently with the failure of companies to file annual accounts and balance sheets for the year 1929 within the period required by the Act of Parliament; and, if they are efficiently organised, how comes it about that there are even now 1,500 companies still in default in their statutory obligations?
§ 26. Sir HERBERT NIELDasked the President of the Board of Trade what steps he now proposes to take to enforce the law with regard to the balance of 1,500 out of the 2,600 companies which failed to lodge their accounts and balance sheets for the year 1929 in accordance with the requirements of the Act of Parliament?
§ Mr. W. GRAHAMIt is not possible till the end of January to compile a complete list of companies which have failed 1065 to file returns for the preceding year. When the list is complete the organisation is able to deal with it satisfactorily according to the procedure which I outlined in my reply to the hon. Member for Hereford on the 4th February. I may say that the number of public companies which have filed no return in respect of 1929 is now less than 1,000 (excluding companies in liquidation or in regard to which steps are being taken for their dissolution). In addition there are approximately 400 cases in which there is an incomplete return which is the subject of correspondence.