Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Act 2022

23 [F1 Disclosure of information about trusts][F1 Disclosure of protected information] U.K.

[F1 (1) This section applies to information delivered to the registrar by virtue of section 4(3), 7(3) or (4) or 9(3) or (4) (required information about trusts).

(2) The registrar may not disclose the information unless—

(a) the same information is made available by the registrar for public inspection otherwise than by virtue of being delivered to the registrar by virtue of a provision mentioned in subsection (1), or

(b) the disclosure is permitted by subsection (3).

(3) The registrar may disclose the information to—

(a) the Commissioners for Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, or

(b) any other person who—

(i) has functions of a public nature, and

(ii) is specified for the purposes of this section by regulations made by the Secretary of State.

(4) Regulations under this section are subject to the negative resolution procedure.]

[F1 (1) The registrar must not disclose protected date of birth information, protected residential address information or protected trusts information unless—

(a) the disclosure is permitted by section 1110F of the Companies Act 2006 (general powers of disclosure by the registrar),

(b) the information is required to be made available for public inspection (as a result of being contained in a document, part of a document, or record to which section 22(1) does not apply), or

(c) the disclosure is permitted by regulations under subsection (2).

(2) The Secretary of State may by regulations make provision requiring the registrar, on application, to disclose relevant protected trusts information to a person (unless required to refrain from doing so by regulations under section 25).

(3) In subsection (2) “relevant protected trusts information” means protected trusts information other than information as to—

(a) the day of the month (but not the month or year) on which an individual was born, or

(b) the usual residential address of an individual.

(4) The regulations may make provision as to—

(a) who may make an application;

(b) the grounds on which an application may be made;

(c) the information to be included in and documents to accompany an application;

(d) the notice to be given of an application and of its outcome;

(e) how an application is to be determined.

(5) Provision under subsection (4)(e) may in particular provide for a question to be referred to a person other than the registrar for the purposes of determining the application.

(6) The regulations may include provision authorising or requiring the registrar to impose conditions subject to which the information is disclosed (including conditions restricting its use or further disclosure).

(7) The regulations may create offences in relation to failures to comply with conditions imposed by virtue of subsection (6).

(8) The regulations must provide for any such offence to be punishable—

(a) on summary conviction in England and Wales, by a fine;

(b) on summary conviction in Scotland, by a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale;

(c) on summary conviction in Northern Ireland, by a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale.

(9) Regulations under this section may in particular confer a discretion on the registrar.

(10) Regulations under this section are subject to affirmative resolution procedure.

(11) In this section the following have the meaning given by section 22(2)—

• “protected date of birth information”;

• “protected residential address information”;

• “protected trusts information”.]

Textual Amendments

F1 Ss. 22-24 substituted (26.10.2023 for specified purposes) by Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 (c. 56), ss. 167, 219(1)(2)(b)

Commencement Information

I1 S. 23 not in force at Royal Assent, see s. 69

I2 S. 23 in force at 1.8.2022 for specified purposes by S.I. 2022/876, reg. 3(g)

I3 S. 23 in force at 12.10.2022 in so far as not already in force by S.I. 2022/1039, reg. 2(a)