Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether he plans to bring forward legislative proposals to introduce stricter limits on the number of businesses that an individual can (a) incorporate and (b) manage after multiple company liquidations within a defined period.
Company and insolvency law already provides relevant authorities with the ability to investigate the conduct of directors of liquidated companies and to act upon misconduct. Imposing prescriptive prohibitions risks penalising the innocent and we have no plans to introduce such measures. However, following the passage of the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 we are taking additional steps to strengthen investigation and enforcement capabilities in this area and Companies House has been using new powers under the Act to assess company incorporations more stringently. Later this year we will introduce compulsory identity verification for directors, further improving transparency.