Commentary on Sections Schedule 3: Register of people with significant control Part 21A: Information about people with significant control Section 790ZF: Protection of information as to usual residential address
479.Section 790ZF applies sections 240 to 244 of CA 2006 (‘Directors’ residential addresses: protection from disclosure’) to protected information under section 790ZF(2). Protected information is a PSC’s usual residential address (URA) and information that their service address is their residential address.
480.The application of sections 240 to 244 suppresses protected information from the public register maintained by Companies House and from the company’s PSC register. Both the company and Companies House must omit this protected information from the register available for public inspection (section 790T and see paragraph 8 of Schedule 3). This is considered appropriate in light of the potential risk to the PSC if the information were to be publicly available.
481.The application of section 243 (‘Permitted use or disclosure by the registrar’) means that the Secretary of State may make regulations setting out the way that protected PSC information may be used and disclosed. Powers under section 243 have been exercised for directors under the Companies (Disclosure of Address) Regulations 2009. The intention is to make broadly equivalent provision for PSCs. This will include enabling protected information to be shared with specified public authorities such as law enforcement agencies.
482.Subsection 790ZF(3) clarifies that subsection (1) does not apply where an application has been granted under regulations made under section 790ZG (see below).