HC Deb 15 January 2003 vol 397 c646W
Mr. Allen

To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry on what grounds courts may disqualify a person from acting as an(a) executive and (b) non-executive company director; and what plans she has to extend them. [89251]

Miss Melanie Johnson

When it falls to a court to determine whether a person's conduct as a director makes him unfit to be concerned in the management of a company, the court will take into account the circumstances of the case and must have regard in particular to the matters for determining the unfitness of directors set out in Schedule 1 to the Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986.

It is also possible for a court to make a disqualification order on conviction of a relevant indictable offence, for persistent breaches of companies legislation and for fraud discovered in the course of a winding up.

The effects of disqualification legislation extend to being a director or being concerned or taking part in, directly or indirectly, the promotion, formation or management of a company, except with the leave of the court.

We have no plans to extend the grounds on which a person may be disqualified.