Company Watch, a credit reference company, warns that a lack of trust in information used by companies to decide whether to lend credit to buyers could have a negative impact on trade.
Jo Kettner states that “wary firms may limit the supply trade credit upon which an economy depends.” She supports The Mail’s Sunday call for reforms at Companies House to be implemented soon.
She says better collection of data would help, adding: ‘Revenue & Customs and Companies House do not always work together. This means that a company can file one set accounts to Revenue to make it appear it did not make profit and does not need tax.
“It then sends another group of accounts to Companies House which make it look profitable so it can borrow credit.
‘Also, as a result of poor quality data, a company can have a county court judgment against it without this appearing on the public record.’ Companies House stated that there were 4.7 million companies on its register. It also said that the vast majority of these companies abide by the law. However, it acknowledged that fraud can be enabled by UK corporate entities and that it is working closely to combat it.
It said that basic checks are made on all documents received to ensure that they have been signed and fully completed. We don’t have the power to verify that the information is correct.