It has been an offence since 2009 to make a false return to Companies House, yet to date there is a record of just one conviction for this offence, in 2018. The Department was unable to confirm the number of prosecutions or convictions made under these existing powers.44 The Department was also unable to confirm why, despite the continued rise in the number of companies registered and the increasing likelihood that some of these registrations are being used to commit fraud against businesses ...

It has been an offence since 2009 to make a false return to Companies House, yet to date there is a record of just one conviction for this offence, in 2018. The Department was unable to confirm the number of prosecutions or convictions made under these existing powers.44 The Department was also unable to confirm why, despite the continued rise in the number of companies registered and the increasing likelihood that some of these registrations are being used to commit fraud against businesses and the public, the Department’s powers to enforce the existing law are not being used.45 37 HM Treasury, Managing Public Money, March 2022, page 14, sec Type: conclusion | Number: 21 | Response status: not_accepted Government response: 6.1 The government disagrees with the Committee’s recommendation. 6.2 Most errors on the Companies Register are accidental rather than deliberate and are corrected before enforcement action reaches the prosecution stage. Historically courts have been reluctant to