Part 1: Companies House Reform Information sharing and use Section 96: Use or disclosure of PSC information by companies
This section substitutes existing section 790ZG of the Companies Act 2006 (Power to make regulations protecting material) of the Companies Act 2006 for new section 790ZG. The existing section 790ZG confers a power to make regulations requiring the Registrar and the company, on application, to refrain from using or disclosing PSC particulars.
	The new section is modelled on the existing section but makes some amendments. The new section allows the Secretary of State to make regulations which:
Require a company to refrain from using, or refrain from disclosing, relevant PSC particulars except in circumstances specified in the regulations (this would be used if new information were later required about a PSC which would not normally be made available for public inspection, such as an individual’s email address);
Confer a power on the Registrar, on application, to make an order requiring a company not to use or disclose relevant PSC particulars except in circumstances specified in the regulations.
	This section also requires the Registrar to protect any application or other document delivered to the Registrar under section 790ZG. Section 96 also creates inserts section 790ZH (offence of failing to comply with regulations under section 790ZG). Subsection (1) states that if a company fails to comply with a restriction on the use or disclosure of information imposed by virtue of regulations under subsection 790ZG, an offence is committed by the company, and every officer of the company who is in default. Subsection (2) states a person guilty of an offence on summary conviction in England and Wales is liable to a fine, and in Scotland or Northern Ireland, to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale and, for continued contravention, a daily default fine not exceeding one-tenth of level 5 on the standard scale.
	Section 96(3) substitutes section 1087(1)(bc) (material not available for public inspection). This no longer refers to section 1046, because regulations under that section do not make material unavailable for public inspection.