Part 1: Companies House Reform General offences and enforcement Section 104: Financial penalties
At present, obligations in the Companies Act 2006 relating to the functions of the Registrar are enforced primarily through the criminal justice system. The exception to this is the accounts late filing civil financial penalty.
	This Act reforms the role and powers of Companies House. As part of these reforms the associated sanctions are improved by amending existing criminal offences, creating new criminal offences, and taking a power to create a new civil penalties regime. This allows the Registrar to impose a civil penalty directly, rather than pursuing criminal prosecution through the courts, where that is a more appropriate use of resources.
	This section inserts a new section 1132A (Power to make provision for financial penalties) into the Companies Act 2006. This new section confers a power on the Registrar to impose a civil financial penalty on a person if satisfied, beyond reasonable doubt, that they have engaged in conduct amounting to a "relevant offence" under this Act.
	Subsection (2) of section 1132A states that a "relevant offence under this Act" means any offence under the Companies Act 2006 (and regulations made under that Act) other than an offence under a provision contained in: part 12 (company secretaries), part 13 (resolutions and meetings) and part 16 (audit).
	Subsection (3) of section 1132A states the regulations may include provision about the procedure to be followed in imposing penalties, the amount of penalties, for the imposition of interest or additional penalties for late payment, conferring rights of appeal against penalties and about the enforcement of penalties.
	Subsection (4) of section 1132A states the maximum penalty is £10,000.
	Subsection (5) of section 1132A states a person cannot have a financial penalty imposed in respect of conduct amounting to an offence if:
proceedings have been brought against the person for that offence in respect of that conduct and the proceedings are ongoing, or
they have already been convicted of an offence for that conduct.
	Subsection (5) of section 1132A also states no proceedings may be brought or continued against a person in respect of conduct amounting to an offence if they have been given a financial penalty for that conduct. This means a person can only be given a financial penalty or be convicted of an offence for the same conduct, not both. To preserve the ability of prosecutors to prosecute egregious cases, a financial penalty can’t be given if criminal proceedings have been brought for the same conduct and are ongoing.
	Subsection (6) of section 1132A provides that amounts recovered by the Registrar under the regulations are to be paid into the Consolidated Fund, and subsection (7) provides that the regulations under section 1132A are subject to the affirmative resolution procedure.