Commentary on Sections Schedule 3: Register of people with significant control Part 21A: Information about people with significant control Section 790O: Rights to inspect and require copies
447.Section 790O sets out a person’s right to inspect and require copies of a company’s PSC register. Any person may, on request and for a proper purpose, inspect the company’s PSC register without charge and require a copy of the register on payment of such fee as may be prescribed by the Secretary of State. ‘Proper purpose’ may be read in light of the fact that the purpose of the PSC register is to provide public information about a company’s ownership and control. Subsection (4) enables the company to check that information is only to be used and disclosed for such a purpose.
448.Section 790O is based on section 116 of CA 2006 (‘Rights to inspect and require copies’). Unlike the register of members it is however considered important that any person may inspect the register free of charge due to the scope of those who may be registrable persons or RLEs in respect of a company (and may therefore wish to inspect a company’s register), as opposed to a limited category of people (e.g. members, and see section 116(1) CA 2006). Similarly, the person requesting access to the PSC register need not state whether they will disclose the information to any other person. This is to avoid any unintended restriction on the use of PSC information for a proper purpose.