§ Mr. Barnettasked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what is the total number of companies registered with the Registrar of Companies at the latest date for which this information is available.
§ Mr. Ridley559,497 at 31st December, 1970, of which approximately 35,000 were in liquidation or course of removal from the registers.
§ Mr. Barnettasked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many companies are awaiting registration at the present time.
§ Mr. RidleyApproximately 335.
§ Mr. Barnettasked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what was the number of new company registrations in each of the last 10 years.
§ Mr. Ridley1961, 33,645; 1962, 34,852; 1963, 42,173; 1964, 48,315; 1965, 36,315; 1966, 28,256; 1967, 31,292; 1968, 20,654; 1969, 25,154; 1970, 30,262.
21W
§ Mr. Barnettasked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what is the number of limited companies that has sought to become unlimited under the terms of the Companies Act, 1967 in each year since the Act became effective.
§ Mr. Ridley156, 2,126, 387 and 94 limited companies re-registered as unlimited in 1967, 1968, 1969 and 1970 respectively.
1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 Wound up voluntarily 5,037 6,444 6,736 6,998 6,500 Struck off under section 353 of the Companies Act 1948 6,335 11,289 30,480 18,725 17,151 Removed for other reasons 13 18 28 28 99 Total 11,385 17,751 37,244 25,751 23,750 The companies struck off under Section 353 were companies which the registrars had reasonable cause to believe were not carrying on business or in operation. In approximately 5 per cent, of the cases the reason was that the company had been fully wound up compulsorily.