Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what was the total (a) number and (b) value of financial penalties (i) levied and (ii) collected by Companies House since October 2024.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Since October 2024, 234 financial penalties have been issued. These had a total value of £58,500. The volume of penalties issued will rise once initial work to deploy the required systems and processes has been completed.
5 financial penalties have been collected, totalling £1,250. Action to collect penalties will accelerate during summer 2025. Outstanding penalties will be referred to debt collection and litigation where appropriate.
This information is unaudited and subject to change. Audited figures will be made available when Companies House’s annual accounts are laid in Parliament. This is currently expected to be delivered in July 2025.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether Companies House has key performance indicators to measure the quality of information on the registry.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Work is underway to develop key performance indicators and establish baselines to measure the quality of information on the Companies House register. The need for this work has been triggered by the implementation of the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act (ECCTA).
The key performance indicators will include assessments of compliance levels, adherence to data standards and measurement of the value of the information on the Register.
Companies House are also investigating ways to estimate false, misleading and inaccurate information in line with the Registrar’s objectives under ECCTA. This will be based on the threats outlined in the Strategic Intelligence Assessment.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how many requests were made to Companies House to (a) remove and (b) change director details in each year between 2020 and 2024.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
No figure for requests to remove or change director details is currently available.
Companies House does hold data on removals of officer addresses. To the year ending 4 March 2025, Companies House removed 66,900 officer addresses.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, for what reason the launch of the service to register Companies House authorised agents has been delayed.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Companies House is transforming its technology infrastructure in order to implement measures under the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023.
The decision was taken to postpone the full launch for a short period to allow time to address the issues and ensure the service will continue to operate to a high standard for customers.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how many (a) high-end, (b) trade-based and (c) cash-based money laundering incidents were identified by Companies House in each year between 2020 and 2024.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Companies House does not hold this information. Prior to March 2024, Companies House had limited powers to analyse and share information. Whilst the investigation of suspected money laundering is not within its remit, where suspicious patterns of behaviour are identified that reflect the typology of money laundering, Companies House will share this information with relevant law enforcement partners, using data sharing powers which came into force in March 2024.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how many requests were made by Companies House to query information (a) sent for acceptance to and (b) already published on the register using the new enforcement powers introduced in March 2024.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Since 4 March 2024 Companies House has been using its new powers to challenge, question and reject documents and to make enquiries about documents that have already been registered.
No figure for filings that have been queried prior to before registration is available.
To the year ending 4 March 2025, Companies House removed:
Personal information was redacted from 49,800 incorporation documents. A further have been removed from the register. These actions have affected 100,400 companies in total.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if he will make an estimate of the number of people who will be affected by the increase in the national minimum wage in each (a) local authority and (b) parliamentary constituency in (i) Birmingham and (ii) Solihull broken; and what the average uplift to annual wages will be for people earning the minimum wage.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The recently published Impact Assessment estimates the number of workers who will be affected by the increases in the National Living Wage and National Minimum Wage, broken down by region and country. More granular estimates by local authority and parliamentary constituency are subject to greater data reliability issues due to survey response rates.
A full-time worker earning the National Living Wage will see their gross annual earnings rise by £1,400 per year. A full-time worker earning the 18-20 National Minimum Wage will see their gross annual earnings rise by £2,500 per year.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, with refence to section 1.3 2. of his policy paper entitled The Atlantic Declaration, updated on 21 June 2023, what progress he has made on establishing an outbound investment mechanism.
Answered by Gareth Thomas - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Department for Business and Trade is keeping the potential national security risk posed by outward direct investment in sensitive sectors under review, and continuing to engage with businesses and financial stakeholders on this issue. In May, the Cabinet Office issued public guidance on how the existing National Security and Investment Act powers allow the Government to intervene in certain outward direct investment transactions.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how much private investment he expects from the additional funding allocated to the automotive sector in the next five years.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Budget committed over £2bn to 2030 for zero-emission vehicle manufacturing and their supply chains. This funding will build on previous ATF and APC programmes which have leveraged over £6bn of investment from the private sector so far. We will continue with this success, unlocking billions more in private investment to support our automotive industry. Further details will be announced as part of the industrial strategy.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps his Department plans to take to maximise the value for money from public funding for the steel industry over the next five years.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government is developing a steel strategy, in partnership with the steel sector and trade unions, that will set out a long-term vision for steel and create opportunities for public and private investment.
We have committed to providing up to £2.5bn for steel which will be available through the National Wealth Fund and other routes. This is in addition to the £500m for Tata at Port Talbot steelworks. When designing how best to invest this money, we will consider a range of factors, including leveraging private sector investment and making the UK a great place to invest.