Modernising Company Investigations

The DTI are currently reviewing powers of inspection with a view to modernising the present Companies Act powers to respond to changing business practices and technological advances, and to address the weaknesses of the system. These proposals considerably widen the scope for investigations and inspections and justify doing so on the basis that the cost of investigations should be borne by companies as the price of the benefits of limited liability. However, DTI investigations can already be lengthy and costly; for example, the Mirror Group Newspaper affair took nearly nine years to complete at a cost of almost ten million pounds.

The stated objective of the review is the provision of an up-to-date framework that...