Mr Ireland has given an undertaking to the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy that he won’t act as a director of a company for a period of 7 years from 21 March 2017.

Scotboys Group Plc was a company set up for wired telecommunication and travel agency activities.

On 22 September 2015, Scotboys Group Plc, with liabilities of £52,106 was placed into compulsory liquidation following a winding up petition lodged by Direct Response Limited. Mr Ireland was the sole director of Scotboys Group Plc at that time.

Following the Liquidator’s appointment, the investigation found as a consequence of Mr Ireland’s failure to co-operate and deliver up the company’s accounting records it was not possible to verify:

• why Scotboys Group Plc failed to meet the legal requirements of a Plc
• the true nature of the company’s trading business and history
• the financial position of the company, at any given time, between incorporation on 07 August 2013 and 22 September 2015 when the company was placed into liquidation
• what became of unpaid goods supplied by creditors totalling £24,958

Robert Clarke, Head of Company Investigation at the Insolvency Service said:

Keeping proper records is a pivotal duty for directors and there is no place in the business environment for those who neglect their responsibilities in this area and thereby cover up the activities of the companies they manage. The lack of records in this case made it impossible to determine whether there was other, more serious, misconduct at Scotboys Group Plc and that is reflected in the lengthy period of disqualification.

This ban should serve as a reminder to any directors tempted to do the same: the Insolvency Service will vigorously investigate you and seek to remove you from the marketplace.

Notes to editors

Scotboys Group Plc (CRO No. SC456211) went into compulsory liquidation on 22 September 2015 with a deficiency to creditors of £52,106. The company was incorporated to provide wired telecommunications and travel agency activities.

Christopher John Ireland is of Dundee and his date of birth is 7 December 1982.

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.

Market investigations are powerful tools that can bring in major changes to make markets work better for consumers and businesses.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) committed, in its Annual Plan, to review the way it conducts them. It took account of experience since they were introduced in the Enterprise Act 2002, and in particular of the CMA’s major investigations into energy and banking, as well as legislative changes that came into force in 2014, reducing their time limit from 2 years to 18 months.

The CMA is proposing the following changes to streamline its existing processes and ensure it meets the shorter statutory timescale:

• Increasing interaction with stakeholders at an early stage in the investigation, including holding formal hearings sooner in the process.
• Assessing potential remedies to improve the market at an earlier stage in the investigation.
• Reducing the number of formal publication and consultation stages – removing the Updated Issues Statement, and combining provisional findings and provisional remedies into a single Provisional Decision Report.
• Allowing market studies (a shorter look at the market which can precede market investigations) to carry out preparatory work when they are likely to lead to a full investigation.
• Introducing the option for the CMA board to give an advisory steer on the scope of the market investigation, which is run by an independent group of CMA panel members.

The CMA considers that these proposed changes will enable it to carry out its market investigations more quickly, without reducing their effectiveness. It also believes they will preserve a fair and robust process and independence of decision-making throughout, which is central to the regime. And it thinks that earlier discussion of possible remedies to any competition problems uncovered should ensure a fuller discussion with all parties involved, ensuring the most effective remedies possible.

The document outlining the proposed changes and the resulting changes in the CMA’s published guidance, is available on the consultation page.

Interested parties are encouraged to respond to the consultation, which will run until 2 May 2017. Responses should be submitted by email to marketinvestigations-review@cma.gsi.gov.uk or by post to:

Today [March 6] we are going to be having a discussion about the continued role of the EU in defence and security and clearly this is something that the UK supports. We are always going to be part of Europe’s wider security architecture provided, of course, that it does not undermine NATO. NATO is the cornerstone of our Atlantic alliance and of our defence.

We’ll be having discussions about Ukraine and what we can collectively do to shore up Ukraine in view of the various threats that it faces. I’ll be briefing the Council along with my Polish colleague – Witold Waszczykowski – about our recent trip to Kiev and what we were able to discuss with President Poroshenko and Foreign Minister Klimkin about the struggles that they face, and the threats that they face, particularly in Eastern Ukraine.

We’ll also have a discussion with Sameh Shoukry – the Egyptian Foreign Minister – and we’ll be talking again about what we in Europe can do to shore up Egypt as it makes its important progress towards democracy and greater reform.