§ Mr. Hugh Jenkinsasked the President of the Board of Trade (1) whether he will now invite the directors of a company, whose name has been sent to him, to publish the details of the contribution to turnover and pre-tax profits of its metal, paper, plastic and machinery building activities, which have been omitted from its accounts for the year ended 31st March, 1969;
(2) whether he will refer to the Director of Public Prosecutions the failure of the directors of the Metal Box Company to break down in its report the various classes of business in which it engages in contravention of Section 17 of the Companies Act, 1967.
§ Mrs. Gwyneth DunwoodySection 17 of the Companies Act, 1967, requires the directors of a company to state in their report the turnover and profit attributable to each of the classes of the business of the company and its subsidiaries which, in their opinion, differ substantially from each other. The directors of the Metal Box Company regarded the activities of the company and its subsidiaries as a single class of business and so did not 349W give information under that Section in their report for the year which ended on 31st March, 1969.