Chapter 5: Protection from disclosure
Section 790ZF: Protection of information as to usual residential address
479.Section 790ZF applies sections 240 to 244 of CA 2006 (‘Directors’ residential addresses: protection from disclosure’) to protected information under section 790ZF(2). Protected information is a PSC’s usual residential address (URA) and information that their service address is their residential address.
480.The application of sections 240 to 244 suppresses protected information from the public register maintained by Companies House and from the company’s PSC register. Both the company and Companies House must omit this protected information from the register available for public inspection (section 790T and see paragraph 8 of Schedule 3). This is considered appropriate in light of the potential risk to the PSC if the information were to be publicly available.
481.The application of section 243 (‘Permitted use or disclosure by the registrar’) means that the Secretary of State may make regulations setting out the way that protected PSC information may be used and disclosed. Powers under section 243 have been exercised for directors under the Companies (Disclosure of Address) Regulations 2009. The intention is to make broadly equivalent provision for PSCs. This will include enabling protected information to be shared with specified public authorities such as law enforcement agencies.
482.Subsection 790ZF(3) clarifies that subsection (1) does not apply where an application has been granted under regulations made under section 790ZG (see below).
Section 790ZG: Power to make regulations protecting material
483.There may be circumstances in which a PSC’s required particulars (over and above the URA and day of date of birth (see Section 96)) should be suppressed from public disclosure to protect individuals at serious risk of harm. For instance, where the company’s activities may put the individual at risk (e.g. in the case of companies that conduct animal testing).
484.Section 790ZG therefore provides that the Secretary of State may make provision by regulations for some or all PSC information to be suppressed from the public register maintained by Companies House and the company’s PSC register in certain circumstances. Both the company and Companies House must omit this protected information from the register available for public inspection (section 790T and see paragraph 8 of Schedule 3). Such provision may not however be made in relation to an entity treated as an individual under section 790C(12) as the same potential risks are not considered to apply.
485.Regulations may require the company and the registrar not to use or disclose information, other than in prescribed circumstances, where an application to that effect is made (subsection (1)). Regulations will set out the public authorities to whom this information may be disclosed.
486.Regulations may make provision as to the criteria for applications and the process by which applications are made and determined (subsection (3)). They may also make provision in respect of the duration of the protection; procedures for its revocation; and the charging of fees by the registrar in relation to access to such information in prescribed circumstances. The scope of this power is broadly similar to that in section 243(5) CA 2006 (‘Permitted use or disclosure by the registrar’). Subsection (3)(f) enables regulations to set out how a company should make its register available for public inspection and respond to requests for access where an application under section 790ZG has been made.
487.Regulations may also give the registrar discretion to determine an application and to refer questions to others in so doing (subsection (4) and see section 243(6) CA 2006).
488.Subsection (6) clarifies that this section does not affect the use or disclosure of a person’s details in any other capacity, for example, as a director or member of a company.
