Category: Gov Press Releases

Mrs Rokeya Monir, the sole registered director of Nawab Lounge Ltd, which traded as Nawab, an Indian restaurant and takeaway in Thatcham, Berkshire has been disqualified from acting as a company director for seven years having given disqualification undertakings to the Secretary of State for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, which commenced on 28 September 2017 for employing three illegal workers.

Monir’s disqualification follows investigations carried out by the Insolvency Service and Home Office Immigration Enforcement.

Having inspected the premises in January 2015, Home Office Immigration Enforcement officials found three illegal workers and imposed a penalty of £30,000.

On 27 February 2015, Home Office Immigration Enforcement issued Nawab Lounge Ltd with a Notification of Liability for a Civil Penalty for £30,000 in respect of the company’s employment of three illegal workers. Payment was due on or before 31 March 2015, however, on 5 August 2015 Nawab Lounge Ltd went into liquidation and the penalty remained unpaid.

Commenting on the disqualification, David Brooks a Chief Investigator with the Insolvency Service said:

The Insolvency Service rigorously pursues directors who fail to pay penalties imposed by the government for breaking employment and immigration laws. We have worked closely in this case with our colleagues at the Home Office to achieve this disqualification.

The director sought to gain an unfair advantage over her competitors by employing individuals who did not have the right to work in the UK in breach of her duty as a director.

The public has a right to expect that those who break the law will face the consequences. If you fail to comply with your obligations, the Insolvency Service will investigate and you run the risk of being removed from the business environment.

Notes to editors

Rokeya Monir, 49, was the sole registered director of Nawab Lounge Ltd, company number 08732028, which was incorporated in October 2013 and traded as an Indian restaurant and takeaway from The Broadway, Thatcham, Berkshire.

Mrs Monir resides at Battery Hill, Winchester, SO22 4DD and her date of birth is 25 July 1968.

She has been disqualified for a period of 7 years commencing from 28 September 2017.

A disqualification order has the effect that without specific permission of a court, a person with a disqualification cannot:

• act as a director of a company
• take part, directly or indirectly, in the promotion, formation or management of a company or limited liability partnership
• be a receiver of a company’s property

Disqualification undertakings are the administrative equivalent of a disqualification order but do not involve court proceedings.

Persons subject to a disqualification order are bound by a range of other restrictions.

The Insolvency Service, an executive agency sponsored by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), administers the insolvency regime, and aims to deliver and promote a range of investigation and enforcement activities both civil and criminal in nature, to support fair and open markets. We do this by effectively enforcing the statutory company and insolvency regimes, maintaining public confidence in those regimes and reducing the harm caused to victims of fraudulent activity and to the business community, including dealing with the disqualification of directors in corporate failures.

BEIS’ mission is to build a dynamic and competitive UK economy that works for all, in particular by creating the conditions for business success and promoting an open global economy. The Criminal Investigations and Prosecutions team contributes to this aim by taking action to deter fraud and to regulate the market. They investigate and prosecute a range of offences, primarily relating to personal or company insolvencies.

The agency also authorises and regulates the insolvency profession, assesses and pays statutory entitlement to redundancy payments when an employer cannot or will not pay employees, provides banking and investment services for bankruptcy and liquidation estate funds and advises ministers and other government departments on insolvency law and practice.

Further information about the work of the Insolvency Service, and how to complain about financial misconduct, is available.

Contact Press Office

You can also follow the Insolvency Service on:

• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• YouTube

Mr Ajaz Manan Din Mir, a registered director of Emerald City Ltd, which traded as Anokha Indian Bar and Restaurant from Burgon Street, London, has been disqualified from acting as a company director for seven years commencing on 20 September 2017.

The Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy brought proceedings against Ajaz Manan Din Mir and on 30 August 2017 the case was heard in the High Court. Upon hearing the evidence, and with Mr Mir failing to appear in court, a seven year disqualification order was made and Mr Mir was also ordered to pay costs of £4,230.

Although Mr Mir provided some accounting records to the liquidator these were inadequate and it was not possible in particular to verify what the total takings were including those made by cash and whether over £300,000 paid out from the company’s bank accounts related to bona fide business expenditure. No wages records were provided either so it was not possible to establish the position with regards employees and tax due.

Mr Mir had also failed to ensure that Emerald City Ltd had complied with its statutory obligations to HMRC in particular that it had failed to submit a number of VAT returns to HMRC. HMRC duly raised assessments including an officer’s assessment and at liquidation the amount stated as being owed to HMRC in relation to VAT was just over £129,000.

Additionally, no annual accounts were filed with Companies House.

An analysis of the company’s bank accounts carried out by the Insolvency Service revealed that from September 2013 onwards, a total in excess of £332,000 was paid out from the accounts, of which, nothing was paid to HMRC in respect of the arrears of the VAT debt.

Commenting on the disqualification, Lawrence Zussman, Deputy Head of Investigations with the Insolvency Service said:

The period of this disqualification sends a clear message that this kind of behaviour from company directors will not be tolerated. Company directors have a statutory duty under the Companies Act to keep adequate company records which should satisfactorily explain payments.

If you fail to comply with statutory legislation, or if you treat creditors such as HMRC differently to others, then you have not taken your responsibilities as a director seriously and the Insolvency Service will not hesitate to investigate and you run the risk of being removed from the business environment.

Notes to editors

Ajaz Manan Din Mir, 54, was a registered director of Emerald City Ltd (Company Registration No. 08029250), which was incorporated in April 2012 and traded as an Indian Restaurant from Burgon Street, London.

Mr Mir has been disqualified for 7 years from 20 September 2017. He is of London and his date of birth is 31 January 1963.

The disqualification order was made by Registrar Barber in the High Court of Justice on 30 August 2017. Miss Jessica Powers, appeared for the Claimant, with the Defendant neither attending nor being represented.

A disqualification order has the effect that without specific permission of a court, a person with a disqualification cannot:

• act as a director of a company
• take part, directly or indirectly, in the promotion, formation or management of a company or limited liability partnership
• be a receiver of a company’s property

Persons subject to a disqualification order are bound by a range of other restrictions.

The Insolvency Service, an executive agency sponsored by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), administers the insolvency regime, and aims to deliver and promote a range of investigation and enforcement activities both civil and criminal in nature, to support fair and open markets. We do this by effectively enforcing the statutory company and insolvency regimes, maintaining public confidence in those regimes and reducing the harm caused to victims of fraudulent activity and to the business community, including dealing with the disqualification of directors in corporate failures.

BEIS’ mission is to build a dynamic and competitive UK economy that works for all, in particular by creating the conditions for business success and promoting an open global economy. The Criminal Investigations and Prosecutions team contributes to this aim by taking action to deter fraud and to regulate the market. They investigate and prosecute a range of offences, primarily relating to personal or company insolvencies.

The agency also authorises and regulates the insolvency profession, assesses and pays statutory entitlement to redundancy payments when an employer cannot or will not pay employees, provides banking and investment services for bankruptcy and liquidation estate funds and advises ministers and other government departments on insolvency law and practice.

Further information about the work of the Insolvency Service, and how to complain about financial misconduct, is available.

Contact Press Office

You can also follow the Insolvency Service on:

• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• YouTube

The Queen has been pleased to appoint Lady Susan Haughey, CBE, DL, as Lord-Lieutenant for Lanarkshire to succeed Mr Mushtaq Ahmad, OBE, who retires on 12 November 2017.

Background

Lady Susan Haughey was educated at Holyrood Secondary School. In 1985 she set up City Refrigeration Ltd with her husband, of which she was an owner and director for 32 years. City Refrigeration is now a global business with a very large turnover and employing 14,000 people across the UK, France, Australia, Asia and North America.

In 2002 they set up the City Charitable Trust and over the past fifteen years they have donated £9 million to deserving causes.

For the past six years Lady Susan Haughey has been Director of the Kilbryde Hospice in Lanarkshire. She has committed herself to bringing communities together to co exist socially and culturally. She was awarded the Loving Cup in October 2015 by the Lord Provost of Glasgow and in 2016 was winner of the Woman of Influence Award. In June 2016 Lady Susan Haughey received a CBE.

Hampshire Capital Ventures Limited (Hampshire Capital), and its successor, Solaris Vision Ltd, a Bulgarian registered company, registration number 204122391, were wound up by the High Court on 18 October 2017.
Hampshire Capital, followed by Solaris Vision Ltd, operated using the trading styles Magnum Options and Magnum Options EU, via a trading platform, using the websites www.magnumoptions.eu and latterly www.magnumoptions.com.

There were 41 complaints made to the police against Magnum Options in the period February 2016 to March 2017, with customers reporting losses of over £750,000.

Those websites offered members of the public the opportunity to conduct binary options trading, which is a form of fixed-odds betting on movements in financial markets. The websites made numerous claims as to possible investment returns, with an 81% return rate per trade used as a headline throughout the websites.

Solaris Vision Ltd was placed into provisional liquidation by the High Court in London on 8 August 2017, on the application of the Insolvency Service, due to its concerns that the company were posing an ongoing risk to the public by operation of its fraudulent trading platform. The websites have not been accessible since 25 September 2017.

The investigation into both companies found that they had attracted customers through viral internet marketing, offering guaranteed fixed returns as set out throughout the above websites. Customers were not made aware of terms and conditions at the point of sale. Those terms and conditions were deemed to be onerous and unfair on customers, requiring them to trade 30 or 40 times their account balances in order to make withdrawals. Even when some customers did do so, no pay-outs were made. Customers who sought withdrawals or repayments of their deposits were mainly met with silence from the companies, who were only contactable by email after the time customers signed up for trading.

In other instances the companies had made unauthorised withdrawals from customers credit or debit cards, a point which Registrar Jones stressed was of serious concern during the winding up hearing on 18 October 2017.
Neither company cooperated with the investigation.

The companies targeted customers worldwide, all the while giving the impression that they operated out of the UK, by referring to UK trading addresses on the websites. Those addresses turned out to be accommodation addresses, for which neither company were authorised to use.

Hampshire Capital has previously come to the attention of public authorities in other countries, as follows:
On 13 May 2016, the British Columbia Securities Commission published a notice, referring to ‘Magnum Options, operated by Hampshire Capital Ventures Ltd’ and advising residents to exercise caution when dealing with “firms that are not registered to trade or advise in BC”.

On 14 December 2016, the Director of the Securities Division of the Financial and Consumer Affairs Authority of Saskatchewan made a temporary order restraining Hampshire from carrying out certain activities.

On 16 January 2017, the Australian Securities & Investments Commission published a notice advising that Hampshire “could be involved in a scam” and warning: “Do not deal with this business as it is unlicensed in Australia”.

Notes to Editors

Hampshire Capital Ventures Limited – company registration number 09883248 – was incorporated on 23 November 20115. Its registered office is that of a company formations and accommodation services provider, Company Formations, at Fernhills House, Todd Street, Bury, BL9 5BJ. Solaris Vision Ltd was incorporated in Bulgaria on 15.06.15, registration number 204122391. The company’s registered office address is Zh.K, Mladost 4, Bl. 428, Entr. 1, 1st/3rd Floor, Sofia 1715, Bulgaria. The company’s sole director is a Hristo Stilianov Dobrev.

The petition to wind up the companies were presented in the High Court on 7 August 2017, under the provisions of section 124A of the Insolvency Act 1986 following confidential enquiries by Company Investigations under section 447 of the Companies Act 1985, as amended.

All enquiries concerning the affairs of the companies should be made to: The Official Receiver, Public Interest Unit, 4 Abbey Orchard Street, London, SW1P 2HT. Telephone: 0207 637 1110, Email: piu.or@insolvency.gsi.gov.uk.

Company Investigations, part of the Insolvency Service, uses powers under the Companies Act 1985 to conduct confidential fact-finding investigations into the activities of live limited companies in the UK on behalf of the Secretary of State for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS).

Further information about live company investigations is available here

The Insolvency Service, an executive agency sponsored by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), administers the insolvency regime, and aims to deliver and promote a range of investigation and enforcement activities both civil and criminal in nature, to support fair and open markets. We do this by effectively enforcing the statutory company and insolvency regimes, maintaining public confidence in those regimes and reducing the harm caused to victims of fraudulent activity and to the business community, including dealing with the disqualification of directors in corporate failures.

BEIS’ mission is to build a dynamic and competitive UK economy that works for all, in particular by creating the conditions for business success and promoting an open global economy. The Criminal Investigations and Prosecutions team contributes to this aim by taking action to deter fraud and to regulate the market. They investigate and prosecute a range of offences, primarily relating to personal or company insolvencies.

The agency also authorises and regulates the insolvency profession, assesses and pays statutory entitlement to redundancy payments when an employer cannot or will not pay employees, provides banking and investment services for bankruptcy and liquidation estate funds and advises ministers and other government departments on insolvency law and practice.

Further information about the work of the Insolvency Service, and how to complain about financial misconduct, is available.

Contact Press Office

You can also follow the Insolvency Service on:
* Twitter
* LinkedIn
* YouTube

Moynoor and Angura Rashid, directors of Salma Cuisine Limited which traded as Salma Restaurant, based in the village of Wingham near Canterbury, have been disqualified from acting as company directors following investigations by the Insolvency Service and HMRC.

Both gave disqualification undertakings to the Secretary of State for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, Moynoor Rashid banned for seven years and Angura Rashid for three and a half years.

At liquidation, the company owed in excess of £400,000 to HMRC.

An in-depth HMRC investigation revealed significant suppression of cash takings resulting in a VAT assessment of £85,794 and additional penalties of £52,897 being raised. HMRC also reassessed the company’s Corporation Tax liability to be £135,009.

Mr Moynoor Rashid was also issued with a personal liability notice of £80,967 due to the deliberate suppression of sales income.

Commenting on the disqualification, David Brooks a Chief Investigator with the Insolvency Service said:

The periods of these disqualifications sends a clear message to other company directors that tax abuse of any kind will not be tolerated, especially when takings are channelled to directors.

Much of the public service is funded by the correct amount of taxes being paid. By not declaring and paying the correct amount of taxes, the public has been deprived from receiving the services it deserves from the public sector. The Insolvency Service therefore will not hesitate to remove bosses from the business environment in order to protect the public.

Notes to editors

Moynoor Rashid, 66, and Angura Rashid, 63, were directors of Salma Cuisine Limited, which was incorporated in July 2004.

Moynoor Rashid – date of birth, February 1952 – is of Canterbury, Kent. Moynoor Rashid has been disqualified for 7 years from 11 September 2017.

Angura Rashid – date of birth December 1954 – is of Canterbury, Kent. Angura Rashid has been disqualified for 3.5 years from 19 September 2017.

Salma Cuisine Limited (CRO No. 05168198) was incorporated on 1 July 2004 and was placed into creditors’ voluntary liquidation on 16 September 2016.

One of the main purposes of the Company Directors Disqualification Act is to ensure that proper standards of conduct of company directors are maintained and to raise those standards where appropriate.

A disqualification order has the effect that without specific permission of a court, a person with a disqualification cannot:

• act as a director of a company
• take part, directly or indirectly, in the promotion, formation or management of a company or limited liability partnership
• be a receiver of a company’s property

Disqualification undertakings are the administrative equivalent of a disqualification order but do not involve court proceedings.

Persons subject to a disqualification order are bound by a range of other restrictions.

The Insolvency Service, an executive agency sponsored by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), administers the insolvency regime, and aims to deliver and promote a range of investigation and enforcement activities both civil and criminal in nature, to support fair and open markets. We do this by effectively enforcing the statutory company and insolvency regimes, maintaining public confidence in those regimes and reducing the harm caused to victims of fraudulent activity and to the business community, including dealing with the disqualification of directors in corporate failures.

BEIS’ mission is to build a dynamic and competitive UK economy that works for all, in particular by creating the conditions for business success and promoting an open global economy. The Criminal Investigations and Prosecutions team contributes to this aim by taking action to deter fraud and to regulate the market. They investigate and prosecute a range of offences, primarily relating to personal or company insolvencies.

The agency also authorises and regulates the insolvency profession, assesses and pays statutory entitlement to redundancy payments when an employer cannot or will not pay employees, provides banking and investment services for bankruptcy and liquidation estate funds and advises ministers and other government departments on insolvency law and practice.

Further information about the work of the Insolvency Service, and how to complain about financial misconduct, is available.

Contact Press Office

You can also follow the Insolvency Service on:

• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• YouTube

The Queen has been pleased to appoint Iona Sara McDonald , MA, LLB, DL, as Lord-Lieutenant for Ayrshire and Arran to succeed Mr John Duncan, CVO, QPM, who retired on 15 October 2017.

Background

Mrs McDonald was educated at Cumnock Academy and she graduated from Glasgow University with a Master of Arts in 1976 and Law degree in 1978. She subsequently joined the Ayr firm Mathie-Morton, Black and Buchanan and became a partner in 1982. She was appointed as a temporary Sheriff in 1994 and received a full appointment in 2000 to the Sheriffdom of North Strathclyde, sitting in Paisley and Kilmarnock Sheriff courts. Since 2007 she has been Senior Sheriff at Kilmarnock.

During her distinguished career Sheriff McDonald has held a number of other positions. She has acted as a court reporter in family cases and as a safeguarder in children’s hearings. She has been a facilitator for judicial studies training and a mentor to newly appointed Sheriffs. In 2010 she was appointed a member of the Scottish Courts Service Board where she is chair of the Estates Committee. She was also involved in the training of Justices of the Peace and Children’s Panel members. Sheriff Iona McDonald is involved in charity fundraising, in particular for the British Heart Foundation.

• Professor Jennifer Rubin appointed as ESRC Chief Executive and will become Executive Chair once UKRI is operational in 2018
• Sir Harpal Kumar becomes UKRI Innovation Champion
• UKRI will play a key role in helping the UK strengthen its competitiveness as part of the new Industrial Strategy

Science Minister, Jo Johnson, has today (Thursday 26 October) announced that Professor Jennifer Rubin has been appointed Chief Executive and Executive Chair Designate of the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). Sir Harpal Kumar has also been chosen as the Innovation Champion of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).

Professor Rubin will continue as Chief Executive until the end of March 2018 and, upon the creation of UKRI on 1 April, will become ESRC’s Executive Chair.

Executive Chairs will be crucial to delivering UKRI’s mission to maintain the UK’s global leadership in research and innovation. They will lead each of the 9 councils that will be part of UKRI, and the role will combine the responsibilities of the current Chair and Chief Executive of each council.

Sir Harpal’s appointment as the UKRI Innovation Champion is in addition to his role on the UKRI Board. As Innovation Champion he will promote innovation and business interests within UKRI and will sit on the Innovate UK Council.

Announcing these appointments, Science Minister Jo Johnson said:

UKRI’s Executive Chairs will play a vital role in our Industrial Strategy by strengthening the UK’s global research competitiveness, and Professor Rubin’s wealth of experience ensures that she is well positioned to lead one of our councils through this transition.

Along with Sir Harpal being made Innovation Champion, these appointments are key to ensuring UKRI is truly interdisciplinary, representing a broad range of research interests. while aligning our research and development sector more closely with business.

Sir Mark Walport, UKRI Chief Executive Designate said:

Professor Jennifer Rubin has a first class academic background in social science and public policy and is ideally placed to lead ESRC to support and champion economic and social sciences within UKRI. Sir Harpal Kumar will bring great experience from his time in business and his distinguished leadership of Cancer Research UK to ensure that the voice of innovation is at the heart of UKRI.

Professor Jennifer Rubin said:

Rigorous social science can be transformative. When brought to bear on pressing challenges from antimicrobial resistance to low productivity, excellent research can make a contribution to improving outcomes for people, communities and economies. I feel privileged to be asked to lead the ESRC in supporting and developing world-leading social science, as well as the skills and data to understand and address societal issues together with colleagues under the new umbrella of UKRI.

Notes for Editors

1. The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) is the UK’s largest funder of research on the social and economic questions facing us today. It supports the development and training of the UK’s future social scientists and also funds major studies that provide the infrastructure for research. ESRC-funded research informs policymakers and practitioners and helps make businesses, voluntary bodies and other organisations more effective. The ESRC also works collaboratively with six other UK research councils and Innovate UK to fund cross-disciplinary research and innovation addressing major societal challenges. The ESRC is an independent organisation, established by Royal Charter in 1965, and funded mainly by the government.
2. Executive Chairs will be crucial to the ambition for UKRI to be a world-leading research and innovation organisation. Each of the 9 Councils that will be part of UKRI will be led by an Executive Chair, a role combining the responsibilities of the current Chair and Chief Executive of each Council.
3. Operating across the whole of the UK and with a combined budget of more than £6 billion, UKRI will bring together the seven Research Councils, Innovate UK and a new organisation, Research England. UKRI will ensure that the UK maintains its world leadership in research and innovation, by creating the best environment for research and innovation to flourish. It will come into existence on 1 April 2018.
4. Professor Jennifer Rubin is currently Director of the Policy Institute at King’s and Professor of Public Policy. Before joining King’s Jennifer established and then led the justice and home affairs research programme at RAND Europe for 10 years. She has served on RAND’s executive team most recently as Executive Vice President, helping to lead its quadrupling in size in Europe. Jennifer obtained her PhD at the University of Cambridge in social and political sciences (King’s College), following a first class degree in European Politics at Loughborough University. She has lectured in politics and psychology; published numerous peer-reviewed policy research reports and academic journal articles; and been a visiting fellow at Harvard’s Center for European Studies.
5. Sir Harpal has been Chief Executive of Cancer Research UK since 2007, having been Chief Operating Officer from 2004 to 2007 and Chief Executive of Cancer Research Technology (CRT) from 2002 to 2004. He joined CRT from Nexan Group, a venture capital-backed medical device company which Sir Harpal led as Chief Executive, having stepped down as Chief Executive of the Papworth Trust to found the business. His early career included a period working as a research scientist with the UK Atomic Energy Authority. Sir Harpal was Chair of the Taskforce and author of “Achieving World-Class Cancer Outcomes: A Strategy for England 2015 to 2020”, published in summer 2015. He is a Trustee of The Francis Crick Institute, a member of the National Cancer Transformation Board and chairs the National Cancer Advisory Group. He is also a member of the Life Sciences Industrial Strategy Advisory Board, and of the Mayor of London’s Brexit Advisory Group.

The proposals include opening up Guild-run fairs for non-member showmen and reducing restrictions on rival fairs opening close to Guild fairs. They also include practical steps to improve transparency, including publishing the Guild rules online, and ensuring objective criteria for membership are explicitly set out.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) investigation has therefore been closed, pending the result of a vote of Guild members to confirm the changes.

The changes aim to:

• Give fairgoers more choice and variety in their local area.
• Improve the quality of rides and fairgoers’ all-round experience.
• Give local councils more power to decide who runs fairs in their area. This will allow them to change the make up of and refresh under-performing fairs.
• Help members and non-members of the Guild work together more easily, providing more choice and fresh attractions to fairgoers.

Ann Pope, CMA Senior Director of Antitrust, said:

The rule changes offered by the Showmen’s Guild will provide the opportunity for millions of UK fairgoers to have more choice in the range of fairs coming to their local area, as well as give showmen the chance to expand their businesses and improve their fairs.

These rule changes are not about favouring larger fairground businesses over smaller ones or depriving any showmen of their livelihood.

Instead, the aim is to make the all-round experience even better for the benefit of fairgoers and showmen alike.

We are pleased the Guild has responded positively to the competition concerns our investigation raised by offering changes to address them.

The members now have the chance to vote in favour of these rule changes to address our competition concerns and draw a line under the CMA’s investigation.

The changes have been suggested in response to the CMA’s allegation in December 2016 that the Guild’s current rules broke the law by limiting competition at fairs run by the Guild and between existing Guild fairs and rival fairs.

Following a public consultation the CMA considers that the commitments offered by the Guild address its competition concerns and has today formally accepted them.

Guild members will vote in January 2018 on whether to accept the proposed changes. If the rule changes are not accepted, the CMA could re-open the investigation.

Notes to editors

1. The CMA is the UK’s primary competition and consumer authority. It is an independent non-ministerial government department with responsibility for carrying out investigations into mergers, markets and the regulated industries and enforcing competition and consumer law. For CMA updates, follow us on Twitter @CMAgovuk, Facebook, Flickr and LinkedIn. Sign up to our email alerts to receive updates on Competition Act 1998 cases.
2. The Chapter I prohibition in the Competition Act 1998 (the Act) prohibits anti-competitive agreements and concerted practices between undertakings (for example, businesses) and decisions by associations of undertakings which may affect trade within the UK or a part of it and which have as their object or effect the prevention, restriction or distortion of competition within the UK or a part of it, unless they are excluded or exempt in accordance with the Act.
3. In December 2015, the CMA launched a formal investigation in respect of certain rules of the Guild, having established that there were reasonable grounds for suspecting that the Chapter I prohibition had been infringed. In December 2016, the CMA issued a Statement of Objections to the Guild, setting out its provisional view that certain of the Guild’s rules infringed the Chapter I prohibition.
4. Where the CMA has begun an investigation under the Act but has not made an infringement decision, it may accept commitments to take such action (or to refrain from taking such action) as it considers appropriate for the purposes of addressing the competition concerns it has identified. If the CMA proposes to accept the commitments offered, the CMA must consult those who are likely to be affected by them, giving them an opportunity to give the CMA their views. The CMA must then take any such views into account before making a final decision on whether to accept the commitments. Formal acceptance of commitments results in the CMA terminating its investigation and not proceeding to an infringement decision.
5. The decision by the CMA to accept commitments does not amount to or imply any finding as to the legality or otherwise of the conduct by the parties under investigation either prior to acceptance of the commitments or once the commitments are in place.
6. The Showmen’s Guild of Great Britain describes its purpose as being “to protect the interests of its members – travelling showmen who gain their livelihoods by attending funfairs”.
7. The Guild has stated that “Virtually all travelling Funfairs – some 200 per week between Easter and Bonfire night – are operated by members of the Showmen’s Guild”. Some fairs in the UK attract over half a million fairgoers. It is estimated that the Guild has around 2,000 members that are active in putting on fairs.
8. The Guild’s commitments have been offered by those members representing the Guild (having taken soundings of the wider membership of the Guild) on the basis that the Guild’s membership will now be asked to implement them by a vote at the annual general meeting of the Guild’s Central Council to take place no later than 31 January 2018. In the event that the membership of the Guild fails to vote in favour of the rule changes proposed under the commitments and therefore to implement the Guild’s proposed commitments by 31 January 2018, then the CMA reserves the right to re-open its investigation.
9. Any businesses or individuals that have concerns about compliance with the commitments can contact the CMA by email (general.enquiries@cma.gsi.gov.uk) or by phone (020 3738 6000).
10. Media enquiries to the CMA should be directed to press@cma.gsi.gov.uk or 020 3738 6798.