Mr. John David Taylorasked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will summarise the actions taken against those companies which failed to submit their annual returns in each of the past five years.
§ Mr. ButlerThe Companies Acts require that every company makes an annual return. At the beginning of each year companies whose annual return for the previous calendar year has not yet been received are reminded of their obligation to submit an annual return. Companies in liquidation or receivership are excluded from the reminder process.
The great majority of companies forward their annual return in response to the reminder, but the names of those who fail to do so are passed to the Director of Public Prosecutions, who considers the institution of proceedings. The names of companies which are no longer in business or cannot be traced are struck off the register pursuant to the Companies Acts.
The following table shows the number of reminders issued, the number of companies referred to the Director of Public Prosecutions and the number of companies struck off the register for each of the years 1979 to 1983. These and other related statistics are published in companies general annual report.
Mr. John David Taylorasked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if voluntary grammar schools are taking advantage of the European Community subsidy for milk distributed to schools.