Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Bill

Andrea Leadsom Excerpts

2nd reading
Monday 7th March 2022 Commons Chamber

[Priti Patel]

The hon. Gentleman has clearly been occupied elsewhere, and we did cover this point earlier on.

[Dame Andrea Leadsom (South Northamptonshire) (Con)]

I have been in the Chamber since my right hon. Friend started speaking. She might be aware that over many years one of the problems with Companies House has been the capability of a small business to register a name, take our money by selling us something, not deliver the goods, then go into liquidation and set up again the next day with almost the same name, perhaps with “and sons” at the end of it. Can she reassure me that this Bill will deal with that issue, in the changes to Companies House?

[Priti Patel]

My right hon. Friend has made an incredibly important point and used a good example to show how the system is being used and abused. I want to reiterate to the House that this is a two-stage Bill. The first stage will deal with many aspects of this, but the full Companies House reform will come in the second economic crime Bill, where that detail will all be worked through. It is important to say this is the first step to making a clean sweep in terms of how we update, in terms of accountability, and in terms of holding individuals and their enablers—their managers and all the others responsible—to account. The House has just heard me speak about the penalties.