FOIA Section 6
| 6. Publicly-owned companies.
— (1) A company is a “publicly-owned company” for the purposes of section 3(1)(b) if— (a) it is wholly owned by the Crown, or (b) it is wholly owned by any public authority listed in Schedule 1 other than— (i) a government department, or (ii) any authority which is listed only in relation to particular information. (2) For the purposes of this section— (a) a company is wholly owned by the Crown if it has no members except— (i) Ministers of the Crown, government departments or companies wholly owned by the Crown, or (ii) persons acting on behalf of Ministers of the Crown, government departments or companies wholly owned by the Crown, and (b)a company is wholly owned by a public authority other than a government department if it has no members except— (i) that public authority or companies wholly owned by that public authority, or (ii) persons acting on behalf of that public authority or of companies wholly owned by that public authority. (3) In this section— “company” includes any body corporate; “Minister of the Crown” includes a Northern Ireland Minister. | |
| Statutelaw.gov.uk. | |
This section makes some but not all companies in public ownership subject to the Freedom of Information Act.
The definitions of "wholly owned" here are substantially the same as the definitions of "wholly-owned subsidiary" in the Companies Acts.
Until recently, a company had to have at least two members, so a lot of publicly-owned companies have one share held on behalf of the parent authority by its chief executive or similar.
Companies wholly owned by the Crown
Ministry of Defence
- Admiralty Holdings Limited (04561727) [holding company]
- SeaZone Solutions Limited (not on the main list) (04969561)
- Admiralty Deutschland GmbH [holding company]
Department for Transport
- Directly Operated Railways Limited (06950819)
- East Coast Main Line Company Limited (not on the main list) (04659708)
HM Treasury
- UK Financial Investments Limited (06720891)
Companies wholly owned by other schedule 1 authorities
Blackpool Borough Council
- Blackpool Transport Services Limited (02003020)
Cardiff Council
- Cardiff & Co Limited (06246680)
- Cardiff Business Technology Centre Limited (02074331)
- Cardiff City Transport Services Limited (06040752)
East Cambridgeshire District Council
- East Cambridgeshire Business Centres Limited (not on the main list) (03819801)
Halton Borough Council
- Halton Borough Transport Limited (01994122)
Ipswich Borough Council
- Ipswich Buses Limited (02000058)
Newport Council
- Newport Transport Limited (01997971)
Norfolk County Council
- Norse Group Limited (05694657) [holding company]
- Norfolk Environmental Waste Services Limited (02633546)
- Norse Commercial Services Limited (02888808)
- NPS Property Consultants Limited (02888194)
Plymouth City Council
- Theatre Royal (Plymouth) Limited (01560651)
Reading Borough Council
- Reading Transport Limited (02004963)
Rossendale Borough Council
- Rossendale Transport Limited (02004970)
University of Cambridge
- Cambridge Enterprise Limited (01069886)
- Cambridge University Technical Services Limited (05749230)
- The Challenge Fund Trading Company Limited (03878072)
- Lynxvale Limited (not on the main list) (02424721)
- Oxford Cambridge and RSA Examinations (02424721)
University of Durham
- Durham University Conference and Tourism Limited (03008538)
- Mountjoy Research Company Limited (02723759)
University of East London
- Knowledge Dock (UEL) Limited (03576958)
University of Oxford
- The Gray Laboratory Cancer Research Trust (03020745)
- Isis Innovation Limited (02199542)
- Oxford Limited (02503801)
- Oxford University Farm and Woodland Limited (01605550)
- Oxford University Fixed Assets Limited (02219889)
- Voltaire Foundation Limited (02944166)
University of Warwick
- Research-TV Limited (02787728)
- Warwick Conferences Limited (02944166)
- Warwick University Training Limited (02446501)
Warrington Borough Council
- Warrington Borough Transport Limited (01990371)
