Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many incidences of directors using fictitious names through Companies House there have been in (a) Wales and (b) the UK in each of the last five years.

Companies House cannot provide this information as it is not captured. The Registrar of Companies has no current powers to verify or validate the identities of directors.

The Government published a consultation on Corporate Transparency and Register Reform on 5 May and this will remain open until 5 August. This seeks to enhance the role of Companies House in increasing the transparency of UK corporate entities and it does contain proposals that would give Companies House greater power to verify the identity of those setting up corporate entities.