Commentary on Sections Schedule 3: Register of people with significant control Part 21A: Information about people with significant control Section 790M: Duty to keep register
435.Section 790M requires a company subject to Part 21A to keep a register of people with significant control over the company (the “PSC register”, see section 790C(10)). This will be one of the registers that companies are required to keep under CA 2006, alongside others including the register of members and directors (sections 113 and 162 of CA 2006 respectively). Together these registers will provide publicly available information on the management, ownership and control arrangements of the company.
436.The PSC register must include the required particulars of registrable persons once all of those particulars have been confirmed. A company must not enter any information about a registrable person in its register until it has all of the information and all of it has been confirmed. This is to avoid the inclusion of ‘partial data’ in the PSC register which may make it more difficult to identify where a company or individual has failed to comply with a duty under Chapter 2.
437.Particulars are “confirmed” if they have been provided or confirmed to the company by the person or with the person’s knowledge; or if they were included in the statement of initial significant control delivered to the registrar under section 9 (‘Registration documents’, and see paragraph 4 of Schedule 3). This will ensure that individuals are aware of their inclusion in the register – this is important in the event that they want to apply for their information to be protected from disclosure, for example (see Chapter 5).
438.The company must also note details of any registrable RLEs in its register (subsection (5)). Such particulars need not be ‘confirmed’, as the same considerations are not felt to apply in respect of legal entities since they cannot have their information protected. However, as for registrable persons, the company should not note any information about an RLE in the register until it has all of the required particulars.
439.Where a person becomes a registrable person or RLE in respect of the company on its incorporation, the date to be entered in the register as the date when the person became such a person will be the date of the company’s incorporation (subsection (10)).
440.Where a relevant change occurs (see section 790E), the company must enter the date and details of the change in its PSC register. This means information that is no longer current will be clearly marked in the register (and see section 790U for provision on the removal of entries). The company must not enter details of the change in respect of registrable persons unless that information has been confirmed (subsection (6)) for the same reason as it may not enter any particulars of a registrable person without confirmation.
441.Additional information may need to be noted in the PSC register to ensure clarity for those searching the register. For example, where the company reasonably believes it has no registrable persons or RLEs, that fact. Subsection (7) provides that the Secretary of State may by regulations subject to the affirmative resolution procedure require additional matters to be noted in the PSC register.
442.Subsection (11) further clarifies certain matters relating to the entry of information in the PSC register, including that section 126 of the CA 2006 (‘Trusts not to be entered on register’) does not affect what the company may record or send to the registrar in respect of the PSC register. Subsection (14) clarifies that entry in a company’s PSC register does not give rise to any obligation on the part of the company to have any regard to the interests of the persons so registered. The latter builds on the precedent in section 808(7) CA 2006 (‘Register of interests disclosed’).
443.It is a summary offence for a company to fail to keep a register. The offence is committed by the company and every officer of the company in default and is punishable by a fine. A daily default fine for continued contravention also applies (subsections (12) and (13)). This offence provision replicates the offence provision that applies for failure to keep a register of members (section 113 CA 2006, ‘Register of members’).