Courts to sanction directors for corporate collapses

Business Secretary Vince Cable has outlined plans to give courts the power to make financial sanctions against company directors in corporate collapses.

His proposed reforms of the insolvency process also include a register to identify a company’s ultimate owner, banning directors who have already been banned outside the UK from running a UK company and allowing courts to hand out fines to directors when serving a disqualification order.

Furthermore, Mr Cable is also hoping to persuade courts to consider any previous company failures when handing out a sanction and to increase the time limit for bringing disqualification proceedings against directors from two to five years, as well as extending the Insolvency Service’s disqualification powers to the Financial Conduct Authority.

The transparency and trust discussion paper can be downloaded from the GOV.UK website, with interested parties having until 16th September 2013 to respond to the proposals.