Dear Mr Moore

With reference to your email dated 19 October 2009.

The Information Rights Team are dealing with your request and a response
will be sent as soon as possible.

Yours sincerely

Mrs J Lumsden
Information Rights Team

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Dear Mr Moore

With reference to your email dated 19 October 2009. Please accept my
apologies for the delay in forwarding a response.

You have requested a list of Local Authorities operating within the
political boundaries of the UK and their status as Public Companies,
specifically records of their compliance to the UK Companies Act 1985.

The Registrar of Companies maintains a register of all limited
companies and unfortunately I have been unable to determine whether we
hold a list of Local Authorities operating within the political
boundaries of the UK and their status as public limited companies.
However, I have undertaken a search of the register of companies in
England, Wales and Scotland and have identified the list of companies
below which have *local authority* in their names.

4685813 * District Surveyors Association Local Authority Building
Control Advisory Services Limited
1698580 * Local Authority Consultancy Services Limited
6414539 * Local Authority Publicity Limited
2322182 * Local Authority Publishing Company Limited
4009781 * Local Authority Search Network Limited
5871810 * Local Authority Solutions Limited
1672903 * Morgan Grenfell (Local Authority Finance) Limited
1168354 * Morgan Grenfell (Local Authority Services) Limited
2751196 * Motor Industry Local Authority Network
4118128 * Newcastle Airport Local Authority Holding Company Limited
2771210 * Society of Local Authority Chief Executives and Senior
Managers
LP 005158 * Superclean Services (Local Authority & Commercial)
SP101CUS * Tayside Local Authority Credit Union Limited

I am not sure whether the list above contains the information you
require but if not, I would ask that you provide further clarification
of your request.

You have also made reference to the compliance with Section 221(1),
Section 221(4) and Section 222(5) of the Companies Act 1985 by these
companies. I should explain that individual companies are ultimately
responsible for compliance with these sections of the Act; however if
Companies House receives a specific complaint from a member of the
public relating to any of these sections, we would investigate the
matter further.

I hope that the above information has answered your request
satisfactorily but please do not hesitate to contact me if I have
misunderstood your request in anyway.

Your request has been considered under the freedom of information
legislation. I am required therefore to inform you that if you are
unhappy with the result of your request for information you may request
an internal review within two calendar months of the date of this email.
Any requests for such a review should be addressed, in the first
instance to me at the above address, and I will ensure that it is
forwarded to a senior member of Companies House who has had no previous
involvement in this case and they will undertake the review.
If you are then not content with the outcome of the internal review,
you have the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for
a decision. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at;
Information Commissioner*s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane,
Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF.

Yours sincerely

Mrs J Lumsden
Information Rights Team

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Dear Mr Moore

With reference to your email dated 17 November 2009 where you have
requested an internal review of my response to your freedom of information
request.

I feel that I may not have explained myself clearly concerning the
information held by Companies House. Companies House is a registry for
all Limited and Public Limited Companies registered in England, Wales,
Northern Ireland and Scotland.

Local Authorities do not usually register as a limited or public limited
company and so would not be on the public register here at Companies
House. To be certain and to see if I could help in some way, as I
explained previously, I searched our records for the words 'Local
Authority' and the result was the list I provided you but as you confirmed
these are not the 'Local Authorities' that your request was referring to.

I also undertook a search of our records for Nottingham City Council,
Nottinghamshire County Council, Gedling Borough Council, Rushcliffe
Borough Council but these local authorities are not shown as 'Limited' or
'Public Limited Companies' on our records.

I have not been able to fulfil your request as we do not hold any
information in respect of the local authorities you are referring to. I
am sorry that you feel I have not answered your enquiry, if you still wish
this matter to be passed to a senior member of staff to undertake an
internal review on this case then I will of course do that immediately.
Please would you confirm that you would like me to continue with your
request for an internal review.

Yours sincerely

Mrs J Lumsden

Information Rights Team

>>> James Moore <[FOI #21371 email]> 17/11/2009
04:42 >>>
Dear Jan Lumsden,

Your last email did not contain the information I requested.
Following my clarification, it is now noted that you are now in
violation of Statute as to the disposition of my request. Please
pass this thread to the internal reviewing officer. A copy is also
being forwarded to the Information Commissioner.

Yours sincerely,

James Moore

dangos adrannau a ddyfynnir

Dear Mr Moore

Thank you for your email of 17 November 2009.

I have been asked to prepare this case for internal review which will
be carried out by a senior member of Companies House. However, before I
do this I feel I should follow up on information you have now provided
which may clarify this issue for you.

You state in your email that ‘local authorities are listed as
companies on pretty much every business search engine in existence,
including that most definitive of them, Dun & Bradstreet.’ You also
provided a list of organisations which you believe are operating as UK
limited companies such as Members of Parliament and the registered
number UC1294054, which is what you have referred to as a D-U-N-S
number.

I have made enquiries with Dun & Bradstreet and apparently they do
provide lists of various organisations whose contact details they feel
may be of interest to the public such as local authorities, Police
Forces etc though they did not recognise the numbers prefixed with UC
quoted in your list. I have been informed that their D-U-N-S number is
a nine figure number. For example, the D-U-N-S number for Nottingham
County Court is 212320304. The gentleman from Dun & Bradstreet did not
recognise the number quoted by you and confirmed that these organisation
and not limited companies.

As a result of looking into this matter, I have become aware that there
have been other enquiries made to other public authorities about these
listings and it seems that the UC prefix appears in a number of websites
but they originate from www.icc.co.uk Again, ICC would appear to have
collated lists of organisations that would be of interest to the public
and they use the prefix ‘UC’ which refers to the organisation being
unincorporated, i.e. not a limited company.

It may well be that these organisations are listed on a number of
business search engines but they are not limited companies and are
therefore not recorded as such at Companies House. I hope the above has
clarified the matter for you but if you still wish to proceed with the
internal review process then please just let me know and I will ensure
that the case is referred to a senior member of Companies House who will
deal with your request.

Yours sincerely

Mrs Judith Chainey
Information Rights Officer
Companies House

This message and any attachments are intended for the persons named as addressees only and may contain confidential information. In addition they may be protected by copyright.

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Dear Mr Moore

I refer to my previous email of 20 November 2009 to which I do not appear to have received a response.

I would be grateful if you could let me know if the information provided in that email has now clarified the situation for you and if not, whether you still require an internal review of your case. I will not instigate the internal review process until I hear from you.

Yours sincerely

Mrs Judith Chainey
Information Rights Team
Companies House

This message and any attachments are intended for the persons named as addressees only and may contain confidential information. In addition they may be protected by copyright.

If you receive it in error, notify us, delete it and do not make use of or copy it. You must not copy, disseminate or otherwise distribute or publish this message, except for the purposes for which this message is intended, without our consent.

Please note that this e-mail has been created in the knowledge that Internet e-mail is not a 100% secure communications medium. We advise that you understand and accept this lack of security when e-mailing us.

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Dear Mr Moore

Thank you for your email. Your request has been referred to a senior member of Companies House who will undertake a review of the way in which your freedom of information request has been handled. You should receive a response directly from them in due course.

Yours sincerely

Mrs Judith Chainey
Information Rights Team
Companies House
Tel 02920 380616

dangos adrannau a ddyfynnir

Dear Mr Moore

I have been asked to forward to you the response to your request for an
internal review, which is attached.

Yours sincerely

Mrs J Lumsden
Information Rights Team

This message and any attachments are intended for the persons named as
addressees only and may contain confidential information. In addition they
may be protected by copyright.

If you receive it in error, notify us, delete it and do not make use of or
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intended, without our consent.

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Dear Mr Moore

Attached is a further response from the Head of Policy and Planning to
your email of 14 January 2010.

Yours sincerely

Mrs J Lumsden
Information Rights Team

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