Schedule 3: Amendments of remaining provisions of the Companies Act 1985 relating to offences
1440.Section 1124 introduces Schedule 3, which contains amendments to certain provisions relating to offences which remain in Parts 14 and 15 of the 1985 Act.
1441.Many of these amendments are necessary due to the repeal by the Act of Schedule 24 to the 1985 Act. Schedule 24 set out the level of punishment for offences under the 1985 Act. The provisions in Parts 14 and 15 are amended so that the applicable punishments are now included alongside the description of the offence instead of in Schedule 24.
1442.Schedule 3 also makes amendments to the offences provisions remaining in Parts 14 and 15 of the 1985 Act to reflect the (non-textual) changes made to that Act by the Criminal Justice Act 2003. Section 282 of the Criminal Justice Act increases from 6 months to 12 months the maximum term of imprisonment to which a person is liable on summary conviction of an offence triable either way, and section 154(1) of that Act gives power to magistrates to impose a 12 month term of imprisonment. The increased penalties only apply in England and Wales; in Scotland and Northern Ireland the maximum term of imprisonment that may be imposed on summary conviction remains 6 months. When the Act received Royal Assent, neither section 282 nor section 154(1) of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 had come into force (which is the reason for the transitory provision in section 1131).
1443.A number of the amendments make reference to “the statutory maximum fine”. This was set at £5,000 at the time the Act received Royal Assent.
1444.Schedule 3 makes only one substantive change to the offence provisions in Parts 14 and 15. This is to include a daily default fine, of one-fiftieth of the statutory maximum, for continued contravention of section 444(3) (failure to provide information about interests in shares).