Part 1: Companies House Reform Information sharing and use Section 94: Disclosure of information
This section amends sections 243 and 1059A and inserts sections 1110E, 1110F and 1110G into the Companies Act 2006.
	Section 243 includes a provision that enables the Secretary of State to make regulations to establish a mechanism through which applications can be made to the Registrar to refrain from divulging protected information to a credit reference agency. This amendment will enable any regulations made under this power to confer a discretion on the Registrar when dealing with such an application, and will enable the regulations to provide for a question to be referred to a person other than the Registrar in determining an application.
	Section 1110E (Disclosure to the registrar), enables any person to disclose information to the Registrar for the purposes of the exercise of any of the Registrar’s functions. This will facilitate information sharing for those bodies who currently face barriers disclosing information.
	Section 1110F (Disclosure by the registrar), enables the Registrar to disclose information to any person for purposes connected with the exercise of the Registrar’s functions, and to any public authority for purposes connected with the exercise of its functions. At present there are provisions in place that enable disclosure of the full date of birth and the usual residential address to specific bodies when requested. This section will effectively widen the current disclosure provisions, allowing the Registrar to disclose any information held, and to do so proactively where that disclosure enables the exercise of the Registrar’s functions, or the functions of a public authority.
	There is also a power in section 1110F to enable the Secretary of State to make regulation specifying any other person that the Registrar can share information with and under what circumstance.
	Section 1110G (Disclosure: supplementary) sets out that the disclosure powers do not authorise any disclosure if it would contravene data protection legislation, but any disclosures made under them do not breach any obligation of confidence owed by the person making the disclosure, or any other restriction that may be placed on the information. It also outlines how HMRC information may be handled, creating an offence where HMRC information is disclosed without authorisation from HMRC. This will facilitate disclosures from HMRC without risk of compromising HMRC who have strict provisions with respect to disclosures of HMRC information. It also states that information received under section 1110E or any other enactment enabling disclosure to the Registrar is not subject to the requirements regarding the delivery of documents as per the meaning provided at section 1114. Consequently, section 1114 has been amended to reflect this.