Section 21 Penalties: non-compliance by account provider
109.This section sets out the penalties that may be imposed on account providers who fail to comply with requirements imposed by or under this Act. Under subsection (1), penalties may be imposed on an account provider who:
offers or operates an account which purports to be a Saving Gateway account but does not comply with a requirement imposed by or under section 4;
fails to make a maturity payment to an account holder within the period specified in regulations made under section 8(4);
fails to make a death payment to the personal representatives of a deceased account holder within the period specified in regulations made under section 4(2)(b);
allows an account holder to exceed the limit on payments into the account imposed by regulations made under section 4(4);
fails to comply with a condition imposed by or under regulations made under section 5 (approvals);
opens a purported Saving Gateway account for a person where the application for the account does not contain the declaration to be made by the account holder under section 6(2)(b), or does not comply with section 6(2)(c);
fails to open an account for an account holder, in breach of the requirement to do so under section 6(3);
opens an account for an account holder in breach of a requirement to refuse to open an account under regulations made under section 6(4); or
fails to comply with any other requirement imposed in regulations made under section 7 (transfers) or section 9 (statements etc).
110.Subsection (2) sets the penalty under subsection (1) as not exceeding the greater of £300 or £1 in respect of each Saving Gateway account affected by the matter, or any of the matters, in respect of which the penalty is imposed.
111.Subsection (3) provides for a supplementary penalty to be imposed by HMRC where an earlier penalty under this section was based on an underestimate of the number of accounts affected.
