§ 38. Mr. John Huntasked the Secretary of State for Industry if, in view of the fact that individual shareholders in public companies are being circulated by his Department with requests to disclose whether they are beneficial holders or trustees for others, he will state the reason for requiring the disclosure of such private and personal information.
§ Mr. Les HuckfieldThe inquiry is part of a survey which my Department is conducting to provide an up-to-date estimate of the distribution of listed share ownership between broad categories of holder, such as insurance companies, pension funds, investment trusts, individuals and so on. Some shareholdings may be registered by individuals on behalf of other categories of holder. The inquiry has, therefore, been sent to a small sample of individual shareholders to help estimate the distribution of beneficial as opposed to registered share ownership.