Freedom Of Information Request – Whether All Active and Dormant Private Limited Companies are Declarable Pecuniary Interests
Date: 13 Sept 2018
Subject: Freedom Of Information Request – Whether All Active and Dormant Private Limited Companies are Declarable Pecuniary Interests
Dear Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government,
Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, I request the following information be provided to me within 20 working days (Thursday 11 October 2018).
Should you require any further information to answer this original request, please ask for it early enough to ensure that it does not delay the resolution of this original request, which is very urgent.
No further extension can be granted due to urgency.
The request is as follows:
Section 30 of the Localism Act 2011 provides that a member or co-opted members of a relevant authority (as defined in section 27(6) of the Localism Act 2011), on taking office and the circumstances set out in section 31, must notify the authority’s monitoring officer of any disclosable pecuniary interest which that person has at the time of notification.
The Relevant Authorities (Disclosable Pecuniary Interests) Regulations specify what a pecuniary interest is. Section 30 (3) of the Act sets out the circumstances in which such an interest is a disclosable interest.
The first of these to have relevance to this matter is “Any employment, office, trade, profession or vocation carried on for profit or gain.”
Question: In which of the following cases, would a member be legally required to declare their interest, and in which case would they not be legally required to declare an interest?
CASE ONE:
The member has a private limited company with a UK registration number.
The private limited company’s registration address is the same as the member’s private home address.
The private limited company has its registered office address as the member’s private home address plus the company’s registration address.
Both company registration address and office address are in the district where the member holds office.
The member is 100 per cent shareholder.
The member is sole director and owns all company shareholding.
The company was registered after the Localism Act 2011 had been brought into Law.
The directorship is active.
The company registration is active.
The company has made its annual tax filings.
The filed tax documents indicate no trading has occurred, at the time of the last annual tax return filing.
Is such a company’s “dormant status” factor enough, to allow for full dispensation or exemption from legally needing to declare such a company as a “disclosable pecuniary interest”?
CASE TWO:
The member has a private limited company with a UK registration number.
The private limited company’s registration address is the same as the member’s private home address.
The private limited company has its registered office address as the member’s private home address plus the company’s registration address.
Both company registration address and office address are in the district where the member holds office.
The member is 100 per cent shareholder.
The member is sole director and owns all company shareholding.
The company was registered after the Localism Act 2011 had been brought into Law.
The directorship is active.
The company registration is active.
The company has made its annual tax filings.
The filed tax documents indicate some trading has occurred, at the time of the last annual tax return filing.
Is such a company’s “active status” factor enough, to disallow for full dispensation or exemption from legally needing to declare such a company as a “disclosable pecuniary interest”?
Question’s Conclusion:
Are such private limited companies owned by members, outside of the Act’s definition of declarable pecuniary interest if dormant at the time of their registration up until the Company’s last tax filling?
Or, are such private limited companies owned by members, inside of the Act’s definition of declarable pecuniary interest even if dormant at the time of their registration up until the Company’s last tax filling?
Yours faithfully,
Mark Dimmock
Dear Mark Dimmock
We do not consider your enquiry to fall under the Freedom of Information regime, for the reasons given below, so have transferred it to the Department’s correspondence team to be answered by the appropriate policy official.
The Freedom of Information Act (2000) gives individuals and organisations the right of access to all types of recorded information held, at the time the request is received, by public authorities such as the Ministry of Housing Communties and Local Government. Section 84 of the Act states that in order for a request for information to be handled as a Freedom of Information (FOI) request, it must be for recorded information. For example, a Freedom of Information request would be for a copy of a policy or other documents, rather than an explanation as to why we have that policy in place.
When the FOI team receive requests that do not ask for recorded information to be as helpful as possible we transfer these to the Department’s correspondence team for answer as ‘official’ or to be answered by the appropriate policy official . You should receive a response to your enquiry in due course.
The correspondence team can be contacted using the form at http://forms.communities.gov.uk/
I trust this information is of some use you.
Yours sincerely,
FOI Deputy Business Partner
Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
Fry Building, 2 Marsham Street, London SW1P 4DF
Dear FoI Requests,
I am not seeking a legal opinion or advice on how specific legislation is interpreted in various scenarios but I am requesting recorded information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
This legislation is already stated by the Localism Act 2011 and its associated Regulations.
I have requested all of YOUR recorded information that supports statutory duty exists to declare any interest as a declarable pecuniary interest in the case where there is a private limited company, of which 100 per cent of the shareholding is the councillor's, and the office is in the district that the member is councillor. And that this applies, even if the company's trading has been dormant, because the company's private limited registration exists as active, has an office and has shares of which one hundred per cent of this shareholding is owned by the member/ councillor.
I request all recorded information which you hold, in support of this fact be issued by 11 Oct 2018 under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
Yours sincerely,
Mark Dimmock
Dear Mr Dimmock,
Unfortunately your request still does not meet the criteria for a valid FOI request.
The FOI Act stipulates that a request must be in writing, provides a name and address for correspondence and describes the information requested.
Although your below email is obviously written and provides us with a name and contact information for you in the form of an email address, the actual information you require is not clear.
After reading your emails it is not clear what information you are requesting, providing a scenario and requesting answers to those scenarios are not valid requests under the Act.
I have provided a link to the ICO guidance page on how to make a valid request, which might assist you in focussing your request, similarly if you need any further assistance in helping to frame your request, please email and a member of the team would be happy to help.
Yours sincerely
MHCLG FOIA Team
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