§ Mr. Austin MitchellTo ask the President of the Board of Trade how many companies with deficiencies of £500,000 or more were not investigated after receipt of an initial report highlighting misconduct under the Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986 due to lack of resources; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Jonathan EvansThis information can be provided only at disproportionate cost.
§ Mr. Austin MitchellTo ask the President of the Board of Trade how many initial unfit conduct reports, pursuant to the Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986 have been received from(a) insolvency practitioners and (b) official receivers during each of the last three years; what was the source of each report; how many initial reports were rejected; and if he will give the reasons for rejection.
§ Mr. Jonathan EvansThe number of unfit conduct returns/reports pursuant to the Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986 received and rejected during each of the three calendar years and the current year (to 31 October 1994) are as follows:
1991 1992 1993 11994 Insolvency practitioners Received 3,479 4,144 4,093 2,726 Rejected 2— 2,888 3,322 1,864 Official receivers Unfitted returns received 2,057 2,317 3,318 2,308 Unfitted reports 208 169 78 150 Rejected reports 26 29 19 12 1To date. 2Not known. The main reasons for rejection were where the unfitted conduct alleged was not considered to be sufficiently serious or evidentially strong enough to justify disqualification proceedings in the public interest. Other reasons include cases where there was clear mitigation or 1133W where the case was linked to other proceedings which could result in disqualification or where the whereabouts of the directors were not known.