Companies Act 2006: penalties for the late delivery of company accounts (section 453): Companies House consultation

On 20 July 2007, Companies House published a consultation document setting out the Government's plans to change the current schedule of late filing penalties for companies who deliver their annual accounts late. It is intended that the changes, which the Government hopes will make the regime more effective, will be introduced in regulations to be made under section 453(2) of the Companies Act 2006 (section 453 restates the civil penalty for failure to file accounts under section 242A of the Companies Act 1985 (section 242A), but instead of the table of penalties being set out in the 2006 Act provides for the Secretary of State to make regulations dealing with this).

It is proposed: to increase all penalties to take account of inflation between 1992 and 2007 (a table of new penalties is set out in the document); that there should be a faster rate of increase in penalties for companies who are more than one month late delivering their accounts; and that the penalty should double for any company which files late and also filed its accounts late in the previous year. The first two changes would come into force on 1 February 2009 (applying to accounts filed under either the 1985 Act or the 2006 Act - the Government will amend section 242A accordingly). Repeat offender penalties will only apply once a company has filed late accounts in successive years under the 2006 Act. It is intended that the changes should be applied to Limited Liability Partnerships (LLPs) under separate regulations made under the LLPs Act 2000.

Responses are requested by 12 October 2007. For background on the publication and filing of company accounts under the 2006 Act, see PLC Practice note, Publication and filing of accounts: Companies Act 2006 .