§ 131 After Clause 56, insert the following new clause:
§ ("Penalties for failure to provide information under section (Power of company to require information with respect to interests in its voting shares).
§ .—(1) Where a notice is served by any company under subsections (1) and (2) of section (Power of company to require information with respect to interests in its voting shares) of this Act on any person who is or was interested in any shares in the company and that person fails to give the company any information required by the notice within the time specified in the notice, the company may apply to the court for an order directing that the shares in question shall be subject to the restrictions imposed by section 174 of the 1948 Act.
§ (2) An order may be made by the court on an application under subsection (1) above notwithstanding any power contained in the memorandum or articles of the applicant company enabling it to impose similar restrictions on the shares in question itself.
§ (3) Where an order is made under subsection (1) above directing that shares shall be subject to the restrictions imposed by section 174 of the 1948 Act, the company or any person aggrieved by the order may apply to the court for an order directing that the shares shall cease to be subject thereto.
§ (4) Subsections (3A) to (7) of section 174 shall apply in relation to any shares subject to the restrictions imposed by section 174 by virtue of an order under this section but with the omission in subsections (3A) to (6) of any reference to the Secretary of State or the Board of Trade.
§ (5) Subject to subsections (6) and (7) below, any person who fails to comply with a notice under section (Power of company to require information with respect to interests in its voting shares) of this Act, or who, in purported compliance with such a notice, makes any statement which he knows to be false in a material particular or recklessly makes any statement which is false in a material particular shall be guilty of an offence and liable—
- (a) on conviction on indictment, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years or a fine or both; and
- (b) on summary conviction, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum or both.
§ (6) A person shall not be guilty of an offence by virtue of failing to comply with a notice under section (Power of company to require information with respect to interests in its voting shares) of this Act if he proves that the requirement to give the information was frivolous or vexatious.
§ (7) A person shall not be obliged to comply with a notice under section (Power of company to require information with respect to interests in its voting shares) of this Act if he is for the time being exempted by the Secretary of State from the operation of that section; but the Secretary of State shall not grant any such exemption except after consultation with the Governor of the Bank of England and unless satisfied that, having regard to any undertaking given by the person in question with respect to the shares held or to be held by him, there are special reasons why that person should not be subject to the obligations imposed by that section").
§ Lord TrefgarneMy Lords, Amendment No. 131 is consequential on Amendment No. 128. I beg to 1025 move that this House doth agree with the Commons in their amendment.
§ Moved, That this House doth agree with the Commons in the said amendment.—(Lord Trefgarne.)
§ On Question, Motion agreed to,