Were council's accounts lost in the post?

by LESTER CROSS

Officers at Scottish Borders Council are disputing and challenging 'incorrect' information posted on the Companies House website which shows the local authority has failed to file annual accounts for a private company it controls.

But despite SBC's protests that its staff complied with a requirement to lodge accounts for its limited liability partnership called SB Inspires LLP with the Registrar of Companies by August 3rd this year, the Companies House website continues to display a notice indicating the paperwork is now overdue by more than six weeks.

Not Just Sheep & Rugby reported on the apparent breach of business regulations by the council earlier this month. Under the rules governing private businesses and LLPs, the Borders authority, if 'guilty', would be liable for a £375 fine - the penalty for filing accounts more than a month late.

However, following publication of our article, SBC eventually responded to our request for comment or a statement outlining their position.

They have now told us: "Unfortunately, the information online is incorrect, LLP accounts were filed on time.  Accounts must be posted physically, which they were, SBC officers have proof of posting."

Furthermore, we were told: "The council has contacted Companies House with an ask that they update their records and the corresponding information online is corrected; that they cancel the fine, and consider making electronic filing of LLP accounts a possibility."

In light of this 'new' information, Companies House was contacted for a reaction.

But their spokesman simply stated: "We don't comment on individual companies".

By way of background information, we were told: "It is possible that a change a company has told you about does not yet show on our register. The register of UK companies is not updated in real-time. For instance, when a company appoints a new director, it has 14 days to notify Companies House.

"Paper documents will take around a week to process (sometimes longer at peak times) and online documents are usually processed within 24 hours."

SBC was also asked to outline the nature of business being conducted by SB Inspires LLP since its formation in November 2021, and to list the reasons for its incorporation. These points were not touched upon in the council's response.