(1)A holding company's group accounts shall comply with the requirements of Schedule 4 (so far as applicable to group accounts in the form in which those accounts are prepared) with respect to the form and content of those accounts and any additional information to be provided by way of notes to those accounts.
(2)Group accounts (together with any notes to them) shall give a true and fair view of the state of affairs and profit or loss of the company and the subsidiaries dealt with by those accounts as a whole, so far as concerns members of the company.
(3)Subsection (2) overrides—
(a)the requirements of Schedule 4, and
(b)all other requirements of this Act as to the matters to be included in group accounts or in notes to those accounts,
and accordingly the following two subsections have effect.
(4)If group accounts drawn up in accordance with those requirements would not provide sufficient information to comply with subsection (2), any necessary additional information must be provided in, or in a note to, the group accounts.
(5)If, owing to special circumstances in the case of any company, compliance with any such requirement in relation to its group accounts would prevent those accounts from complying with subsection (2) (even if additional information were provided in accordance with subsection (4)), the directors shall depart from that requirement in preparing the group accounts (so far as necessary to comply with subsection (2)).
(6)If the directors depart from any such requirement, particulars of that departure, the reason for it and its effect shall be given in a note to the group accounts.
(7)If the financial year of a subsidiary does not coincide with that of the holding company, the group accounts shall (unless the Secretary of State, on the application or with the consent of the holding company's directors, otherwise directs) deal with the subsidiary's state of affairs as at the end of its relevant financial year, that is—
(a)if its financial year ends with that of the holding company, that financial year, and
(b)if not, the subsidiary's financial year ending last before the end of the financial year of the holding company dealt with in the group accounts,
and with the subsidiary's profit or loss for its relevant financial year.
(8)The Secretary of State may, on the application or with the consent of a company's directors, modify the requirements of Schedule 4 as they have effect in relation to that company by virtue of subsection (1), for the purpose of adapting them to the company's circumstances; and references above in this section to the requirements of Schedule 4 are then to be read in relation to that company as references to those requirements as modified.