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The Bill as amended by the Lords on report was published on 5 February. It is available to download from the Parliament website: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/pabills.htm The Bill will be explored in next issue’s Focus On… which will look at the need for a statutory offence of corporate manslaughter and why the Bill has proved to be so controversial. |
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Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Bill published See CLM: ¶2591, ¶7178 |
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NEWS ROUND-UP |
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The Insolvency Service has published its quarterly statistics for the last period of 2006. As far as corporate insolvencies go, there were no major surprises. Overall, there was a slight decrease in the number of companies going into liquidation (3,194 in the last quarter of 2006, compared to 3,239 in the previous quarter and 3,198 in the same quarter last year). The statistics reveal an increase in compulsory liquidations and a decrease in CVLs compared to previous years. Appointments of receivers (which include ordinary, administrative and LPA receivers) remained steady compared to last year, and there appears to be a continuing downward trend in the number of companies entering into CVAs. The number of companies in administration, however, is on the increase (compare 3,560 in 2006 to 2,257 in 2005). The results for individual insolvencies tell a different story. Since 2004 there has been a marked and steady increase in the number of people going into bankruptcy or entering into IVAs with their creditors. However, last year saw the biggest rise of all – almost 60% - with 107,288 individual insolvencies compared to 67,584 in 2005. This comprises 62,956 bankruptcies and 44,332 IVAs (more than double the number of IVAs in 2005). Although such a large increase in bankruptcies is a worrying sign of how people are failing to handle personal debt, it is the popularity of IVAs which has attracted the most publicity. Debt-management firms have come in for criticism for encouraging debtors to use IVAs to get out of debt, giving rise to concerns that individuals may not fully appreciate the significance of these arrangements. For example, the OFT issued formal warnings to 17 such companies in November last year because their advertisements and websites could potentially mislead customers. The statistics can be found at: http://www.insolvency.gov.uk/otherinformation/statistics/200702/index.htm |
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2006 insolvency statistics published
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From 1 April 2007, the paper shuttle annual return (Form 363s) sent out by Companies House will not be pre-printed with details of shareholders and the company’s share capital. This information will have to be filled in by the company (even if it also files a paper Form 88(2) informing Companies House of an allotment of shares). Companies will still have to provide a full list of shareholders with the first and every third annual return. Companies which file these forms electronically will not be affected by these changes as their information will continue to be updated automatically by the Companies House computer system. |
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Companies House changes paper annual return See CLM: ¶4065, ¶4067 |