§ 33. Sir JOHN FERGUSONasked the President of the Board of Trade whether he will in future require defaulting public companies to pay a charge of not less than £2 to cover the cost of the departmental work needed to remind such defaulting companies that they have not obeyed Section 108 of the Companies Act, 1929?
§ 34. Sir N. GRATTAN-DOYLEasked the President of the Board of Trade whether a fine or fee is exacted from the 200 1,884 public companies which failed to make the returns required by Section 108 of the Companies Act in order that the Exchequer may be reimbursed the cost of staff maintenance and correspondence incurred to save those companies from being prosecuted for breaking the law?
§ Mr. W. GRAHAMIt is assumed that the reference is to the copy of the annual return which has to be filed with the Registrar under Section 110 of the Companies Act. Under the table in the Tenth Schedule to the Act a filing fee of 5s. has to be paid to the Registrar in all cases when this document is registered and under Section 379 the Board of Trade are prohibited from increasing the amount of this fee. I have no power to impose a special fee for unpunctuality or failure to file the document, the question of penalty being one for the Court in the event of a successful prosecution.