§ Mr. Weetchasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) whether, within the framework of his statutory responsibilities for prudential supervision of building societies, he will investigate the reasons for the four-year delay by the Britannia building society in revealing a special advance of £340,000 in its financial return for 1979;
(2) to which company or companies the amended advance of £340,000 by the Britannia building society in relation to a first advance of £8,000 in 1979 referred.
§ Mr. Ian StewartThe special advance of £340,000 was to a body corporate which is not a company. The advance was correctly included in the figure for total special advances in part 8A of the society's 1979 annual return submitted in February 1980. But it was mistakenly included with special advances made to persons rather than with those to bodies corporate. The mistake was corrected, and the required further particulars given, in an amending statement which has been filed with the annual return.
The 1979 form of annual return did not require any identification of a borrower which was a body corporate other than a company.
The advance of £8,000 was unrelated to the advance of £340,000. It was to a company, identified on the return as register No. 1225060.
As I have explained to the hon. Member, it would be contrary to the public interest to give information about the monitoring of particular societies except where the Chief Registrar has used his statutory powers to restrict the operations of a society, or following the appointment of inspectors.
§ Mr. Weetchasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) whether he will indicate the exact date when amendments to the AR11's for 1975, 1976, 1978 and 1979 were submitted by the Britannia building society; what was the nature of those amendments; and whether he will make a statement;
(2) in respect of which companies the amendments to the financial returns for 1975, 1976, 1978 and 1979 by the Britannia building society were made;
(3) whether any further amendments to the financial returns of the Britannia building society for the years 1975, 1976, 1978 and 1979 are anticipated;
(4) what is the current total of returns made by the Britannia building society in respect of the years 1975, 1976, 1978 and 1979.
§ Mr. Ian StewartThe amendments were received at the Registry of Friendly Societies on 14 September 1983. They included provision of register numbers of certain companies to which advances had been made, certain other particulars of an advance to a body corporate and amendments to figures given respectively for advances to bodies corporate and other special advances. The companies to which the amendments related, in so far as they are required to be identified in the annual return form, are: 317W
Register number as shown in annual return Name as shown in Companies Register 720782 Willowgate Investment Company Limited 1011148 Bar Limited 831123 Zambra Investments Limited 674633 East Devon Securities Limited Since the first submission of the annual returns for each of the years stated, the amendments received on 14 September 1983 are the only amendments to have been submitted for those years and the Chief Registrar has not been advised by the Britannia building society of further amendments to be made.