§ Mr. Gryllsasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will give details of the current instructions and guidelines to local inspectors of his Department with regard to (a) the timing and manner of any warning to be given by his Department to individual company directors that they are potentially liable under section 152(4) of the Social Security Act 1975 for any national insurance contributions which the company is convicted of failing to pay (i) before proceedings are commenced against the company under section 146 of that Act and (ii) after such proceedings have commenced and (b) the circumstances in which the inspector should seek to enforce the liability under section 152(4) of the directors of a company in default on national insurance contributions.
§ Dr. BoysonThe Department's inspectors are encouraged to interview, wherever possible, every director before a decision is made about prosecuting a company. This assists the Department in reaching a view on which directors knew, or could reasonably be expected to have known, of the company's failure to pay contributions, and enables inspectors to warn the directors426W of possible proceedings under section 152(4) of the Social Security Act 1975. Those directors not seen at this stage are usually interviewed as soon as practicable thereafter.
Every director is sent a copy of the demand for payment of the contributions at the same time as the demand is sent to the company. Subsequently, the Department writes to every director explaining liability under section 152(4) and enclosing a copy of the summons issued by the court against the company.
Once a company has been convicted and an order for payment of arrears has been made, which it is clear will not be met by that company, the Department seeks recovery from appropriate directors where this is considered likely to be effective.