Sources of company membership information
In order to work out whether a company is a public authority by virtue of FOIA Section 6 or a Scottish public authority by virtue of FOISA Section 6, it's useful to be able to find out who its members are. There are various ways of doing this, none of which will work in all circumstances.
The annual accounts of many public authorities list their subsidiaries, either as long-term investments or as associated undertakings. The presence of group accounts (also called consolidated accounts) indicates that an authority has at least one subsidiary. In some cases, the published accounts of a subsidiary will state who its parent is in the introduction. Accounts for charitable companies in England and Wales (available from the Charity Commission Web site) tend to mention who the members of the company are somewhere.
When they update their entry in the Data Protection Register, bodies are required to declare whether they're public authorities, so it's sometimes easier just to find that a body admits to being a public authority without working out why.
All registered companies are required to keep a register of members at their registered office (or a specified alternate location), to let people inspect it, and to provide copies on request (Chapter 2 of Part 8 of the Companies Act 2006). Under SI 2007/2612, doing so costs £3.50 per hour. Alternatively, copies can be requested for £1 + postage for each of the first five entries. SI 2008/3006 makes further provision regarding the inspection and copying of company records.
Private companies with share capital are required to include a list of members in their annual return (at least every third return), which can be obtained from Companies House for £1 [1]. This requirement doesn't apply to most PLCs, and appears not to apply to companies without share capital.
The list of initial members of a company can be found in its memorandum of association (also available from Companies House for £1).
Limited liability partnerships
LLPs outside Northern Ireland are bodies corporate created under the Limited Liability Partnerships Act 2000. They thus come within the definition of "company" for the purposes of FOI legislation. SI 2009/1804 Regulations 30 - 31 require that LLPs include a list of members in their annual return, which is available from Companies House.
Industrial and provident societies
Industrial and provident societies outside Northern Ireland are bodies corporate created under the Industrial and Provident Societies Act 1965. They are required to keep registers of members, but these are only open to inspection by other members, and not in general to the public at large. A society's rules can provide for the inspection of its register of members, and societies are required to deliver a copy of their rules in return for a fee of at most 10p.
Accounting standards
For accounts prepared under UK GAAP, FRS 8 requires the disclosure of the name of the party controlling the reporting entity and, if different, that of the ultimate controlling party.[2] IAS24 applies similar requirements for accounts prepared under IFRS.[3]
