Plans for Corporate Directors to Hide Addresses
James Doran / The Times London 4oct01

COMPANY directors living in fear of attacks from terror groups will be able to hide their home addresses from the public if proposals made yesterday by the Department of Trade and Industry become law. Melanie Johnson, the Minister for Consumer Affairs, published a consultative document setting out the proposed legislation, which is designed to protect directors who fear attacks from animal welfare protesters and direct action groups.

Directors have been forced by law to disclose a home address since the Companies Act of 1917 was written. The Act was designed to promote transparency and to remind directors of their obligations to investors.

Yesterday’s move was spurred by violent attacks on directors of Huntingdon Life Sciences, the animal research company that lost the support of its bankers earlier this year when protests against the group reached a peak.

All directors of public companies in the animal research, animal products, defence, biotechnology and environmental sectors will be free to apply to have their home addresses hidden from the public if the law is passed.

In an unexpected expansion of the proposed legislation, however, the DTI has promised that any groups working in support of the companies believed to be at risk will also be free to apply to have their addresses struck off the Companies House register.

Ms Johnson believes that the risk to some directors is so acute that the consultation period for the proposed legislation has been shortened to just a month, with all submissions to be lodged with the DTI by November 9. She said: “Directors and their families have been subject to violence and intimidation, sometimes of a distressing and terrifying nature. It is essential to respond and remove the requirement for the public availability of home addresses in certain specific circumstances.”

A DTI spokesman emphasised that the proposed measures would become “the exception and not the rule”, adding that directors must have a “cast iron” case for having their details removed from the public register. Each case will be vetted by the police and personally signed off by Patricia Hewitt, the Secretary for Trade and Industry.

A service address must be supplied by directors who succeed in having their names struck off, however, so that law enforcement and regulatory bodies can serve personal legal proceedings and notices.

Home address details that are hidden from the public will be kept on secret files at Companies House in Cardiff for access by the police, regulatory bodies and the intelligence services.

A small fee will be levied to cover the cost of rebuilding the Companies House database and for DTI administration, while unsuccessful applications will be allowed one appeal under the current proposals.

It is feared that the measures will not go far enough to protect truly vulnerable directors, as much information at Companies House is freely available on the Internet.

Brian Cass, managing director of Huntingdon Life Sciences, said: “The fact that existing information at Companies House is going to be left in the public domain rather takes the shine off it.”