§ Mr. Alfred Morrisasked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry when the current maximum penalty for companies failing to file annual accounts or annual returns at Companies house was fixed; and what proposals he has for its review.
§ Mr. Alexander FletcherThe current maximum penalties were introduced on 23 June 1980 by section 80 and schedule 2 of the Companies Act 1980. The penalty for failure to deliver accounts is the statutory maximum (as prescribed by section 28 of the Criminal Law Act 1977 and section 289B of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1975) and that for failure to deliver a copy of annual returns is one-fifth of the statutory maximum.
On 20 February 1984, my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for the Home Department announced that he proposed to introduce an order to be effective on 1 May to double the maximum fines which magistrates 17W may impose for virtually all offences. This will include almost all Companies Acts offences, including accounts and annual return defaults. Additionally, it is proposed to increase the maximum penalty for failure to deliver a copy of the annual return to the statutory maximum on consolidation of the Companies Acts.
§ Mr. Alfred Morrisasked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what was the average penalty imposed on companies that were prosecuted for failing to file annual accounts at Companies house in each year since and including 1979.
§ Mr. Alexander FletcherResponsibility for filing accounts is that of each director personally. Directors may be prosecuted, however, for more than one offence relating to a particular company, and the average fines imposed for each separate offence are as follows:
£ 1979 60 1980 60 1981 40 1982 39 1983 40 The figure for 1979 represents the average fine for both accounts and annual return offences.