Key Facts

• Amendment allows inclusion of costs from Northern Ireland departments under disqualification orders and insolvency legislation.
• New clause sets a minimum £100 fee for company registration with annual adjustments based on inflation.
• Report required within three months after the Act's passage on retaining incorporation fees by Companies House.
• The current registration fee is £12.
• A minimum fee of £50 (new clause 25) or £100 (new clause 33) is proposed.
• New clause 40 would require a review and report on measures to retain revenue from fees for reinvestment in anti-economic crime efforts.
• The current cost to register a company is £12.
• A provisional driving licence fee application costs £34, while a passport is £75.50 and citizenship costs £1,330.
• Kevin Brewer's case against Companies House highlights the need for better data verification.
• The National Crime Agency obtained fewer than five prosecutions annually for economic crime in recent years.
• The Serious Fraud Office saw its prosecutions cut by a third but secured a significant £280 million fine from Glencore last week.
• The US increased its expenditure on enforcement against economic crime by 30% while the UK cut the FCA budget by 4% in the latest spending review.
• Only about £100 million, or approximately £32 million annually, is allocated for economic crime from the private sector contribution.
• The UK has been identified as a centre for money laundering scandals involving Russian, Troika, and Azerbaijani laundromats.
• Some of the biggest money-laundering scandals have involved UK corporate structures, with about 40% of laundered funds through Danske Bank coming via UK structures.
• There has only been one prosecution for money-laundering related to economic crime in the country.
• Kevin Hollinrake acknowledges that Companies House has been under-resourced historically.
• He disputes claims that recent fee reductions are solely due to current government policies.
• The minister states that Companies House fees will be set based on actual resource needs and ringfenced for specific use.
• Kevin Hollinrake suggests that the fee level should not deter legitimate business activity.
• Companies House funding comes from fees charged to companies, which cover costs including enforcement.
• The Department will work with Companies House to determine appropriate fee levels and ensure parliamentary scrutiny.
• Clause 90 amends the Companies Act 2006 to allow information disclosure.
• The proposed amendment would enable the Registrar to share non-public information with insolvency practitioners upon request.
• Insolvency Practitioners (R3) recommend access to non-public information for investigative purposes.
• Clause 90 enhances data sharing powers of the registrar.
• Schedule 3 amends the Companies Act 2006 and Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Act 2002.
• New clause 36 would give the Secretary of State power to make regulations for disclosing PSC information from companies to local authorities.
• Clause 90 widens disclosure provisions with offences and defences set out in subsections (5) and (6).
• Schedule 3 amends Companies Act enabling registrar to disclose usual residential addresses.
• New clause 36 aims to address gaps in information sharing with local authorities, particularly regarding economic crime enforcement issues.
• Data sharing is consistent with similar legislation dealing with data protection.
• Local authorities are a subset of public authorities and can benefit from data sharing provisions.
• The provision applies in situations of risk of harm, serious risk of violence or intimidation.
• Clause 94 amends section 1112 of the Companies Act 2006.
• Clause 95 allows the Secretary of State to issue certificates for national security or serious crime prevention/detection.
• Serious crime is defined in alignment with section 18 of the Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Act 2022.
• Amendment 80 aims to establish a fund for tackling economic crime through regulations.
• New clause 29 requires a report into the merits of a fund for tackling economic crime to be laid before Parliament within six months after the Act's passage.
• The UK’s enforcement expenditure is 0.042% of GDP, while the cost of economic crime to the UK economy is 14.5%.
• Between 2018 and 2021, £3.9 billion was brought in through fines, confiscation, and forfeiture.
• Only 40% of the £354 million recovered from confiscation orders, forfeiture orders, and civil recovery orders went back into fighting crime.
• Clause 96 provides a framework for the registrar to impose direct financial penalties up to £10,000 without lengthy court proceedings.
• Clause 96 inserts new section 1132A into the Companies Act 2006.
• The regulations will be subject to the affirmative procedure for parliamentary scrutiny.
• Section 3 of the Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986 is amended so that financial penalties can count as defaults.
• Clause 97 clarifies that individuals subject to civil penalties will be treated similarly to those with criminal convictions regarding disqualification from serving as company directors.
• The provisions in clause 97 are extended to Northern Ireland under clause 98.
• Clause 99 aims to clarify the meaning of 'limited partnership' and remove ambiguity by aligning it with the Limited Partnerships Act 1907 and Companies Act 2006.
• Schedule 4 outlines the information to be provided by limited partnerships and their prospective partners.
• General partners must report partner information or face dissolution proceedings if non-compliant.
• The Secretary of State may designate a standard system for classifying limited partnership business activities.
• Limited partnerships have been used by criminals to move and hide dirty money.
• In 2014, the US imposed sanctions on the Rotenberg brothers who used an English limited partnership called Sinara Company to evade sanctions.
• Transparency International’s report analysed 1,628 limited liability partnerships over a 12-year period, finding that Russians were the most frequent nationality (17%), followed by UK nationals (16%) and Ukrainians (15%).
• Finance Uncovered and the BBC found that five busiest formation agencies in 2017 created 28% of all English limited partnerships.