{
  "url": "https://openlegislation.uk/companies-act-1948/section-438",
  "json_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/companies-act-1948/section-438.json",
  "legislation": "ukpga/Geo6/11-12/38",
  "legislation_title": "Companies Act 1948",
  "legislation_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/companies-act-1948",
  "path": "section/438",
  "kind": "section",
  "number": "438",
  "heading": "Penalty for false statements.",
  "text": "If any person in any return, report, certificate, balance sheet, or other document, required by or for the purposes of any of the provisions of this Act specified in the Fifteenth Schedule hereto, wilfully makes a statement false in any material particular, knowing it to be false, he shall be guilty of a misdemeanour, and shall be liable on conviction in Scotland on indictment to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, with or without hard labour, and be liable on summary conviction in England or Scotland to imprisonment for a term not exceeding four months, with or without hard labour, and in either case to a fine in lieu of or in addition to such imprisonment as aforesaid:\nProvided that—\n(a) the fine imposed on summary conviction shall not exceed one hundred pounds;\n(b) nothing in this section shall affect the provisions of the 1 & 2 Geo. 5. c. 6.Perjury Act, 1911, or the 23 & 24 Geo. 5. c. 20.False Oaths (Scotland) Act, 1933.",
  "extent": null,
  "status": null,
  "version": "current",
  "annotations": [],
  "outstanding_effects": [],
  "provenance": {
    "source": "legislation.gov.uk",
    "source_url": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Geo6/11-12/38/section/438",
    "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29T11:23:04.638870+00:00"
  },
  "licence": "Open Government Licence v3.0",
  "licence_url": "https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/",
  "attribution": "Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives."
}