{
  "url": "https://openlegislation.uk/companies-disqualification-orders-amendment-regulations-northern-ireland-2025/note",
  "json_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/companies-disqualification-orders-amendment-regulations-northern-ireland-2025/note.json",
  "legislation": "nisr/2025/14",
  "legislation_title": "The Companies (Disqualification Orders) (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2025",
  "legislation_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/companies-disqualification-orders-amendment-regulations-northern-ireland-2025",
  "path": "note",
  "kind": "note",
  "number": null,
  "heading": "Explanatory note",
  "text": "(This note is not part of the Order)\nThese Regulations are made in consequence of the insertion by section 32 of and Schedule 13 to the Finance Act 2024, of new sections 8ZF and 8ZG both of which extend to Northern Ireland, into the Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986 (“the 1986 Act”).\nThese Regulations amend the Companies (Disqualification Orders) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2010 (“the 2010 Regulations”) and expand the ambit Article 22 of the Company Directors Disqualification (Northern Ireland) Order 2002 (the 2002 Order”) so that the duties which that Article places court clerks under to supply information about disqualification orders and undertakings to the Department for the Economy (“the Department”) and the Secretary of State (for Business and Trade) and the duties which it places the Department under to record information about disqualification orders and undertakings in its register, will apply in the case of orders made and undertakings given under the two new sections as they extend to Northern Ireland.”\nSections 8ZF and 8ZF enable persons who are, or have been, directors of companies carrying on business as promoters of tax avoidance schemes to be disqualified.\nIf the company has been wound up the Northern Ireland High Court section 8ZF makes it possible for an officer of Revenue and Customs to apply to the Court to have its directors disqualified and obliges the Court to make a make a disqualification order if they do. As an alternative the officer could accept a disqualification undertaking if satisfied that it would be in the public interest to do so. Disqualification under section 8ZF lasts for between two and fifteen years.\nIn the case of companies engaged in promotion of tax avoidance schemes which have not been wound up, section 8ZG enables the Northern Ireland High Court to make a disqualification order on the application of an officer of Revenue and Customs if the Court is satisfied that the conduct of a past or present director makes them unfit to be concerned in the management of a company. It will again be possible for the officer to accept a disqualification undertaking if satisfied that it would be in the public interest to do so.\nThere is no minimum disqualification period under section 8ZG but there is a maximum term of fifteen years.\nRegulations 3 to 9 amend the 2010 regulations.\nRegulation 4 extends the definitions of “disqualification order” and “disqualification undertaking” in Regulation 2 of the 2010 Regulations, so as to include disqualification orders made by the Northern Ireland High Court and disqualification undertakings accepted by officers of Revenue and Customs under sections 8ZF and 8ZG of the 1986 Act as they extend to Northern Ireland.\nRegulation 4 extends the definition of leave in relation to disqualification orders and undertakings which is in Regulation 2 of the 2010 Regulations to include leave granted for the purposes of sections 1(1)(a) and 1A(1)(a) of the CDDA as they extend to Northern Ireland and inserts definitions of the “High Court” and “officer of Revenue and Customs”.\nRegulation 5 revokes Regulation 4 in the 2010 Regulations.\nRegulations 6 to 9 and the Schedule provide for the substitution of the forms in schedules 1 to 4 to the 2010 Regulations.\nRegulation 10 is made under the power in paragraph 7 of Article 22 of the 2002 Order and amends that Article.\nArticle 22 has heretofore dealt solely with requirements relating to the registration of disqualification orders and undertakings made under the 2002 Order.\nParagraph 1 of Regulation 10 extends paragraph 1 of Article 22 with effect that the requirements for the clerk of the court to furnish particulars about the matters listed in that paragraph to the Department and the Secretary of State will apply in cases where a disqualification order has been made by the Northern Ireland High Court under sections 8ZF and 8ZG of the 1986 Act or a disqualification undertaking has been accepted under those two sections.\nParagraph (2) of Regulation 10 extends paragraph 2 of Article 22 with effect that the Department will be required to record in its register of disqualification orders particulars of disqualification orders made by the Northern Ireland High Court under sections 8ZF and 8ZG of the 1986 Act and of leave granted to persons subject to such orders to do anything which the order would otherwise prohibit.\nParagraph 3 of Regulation 10 extends paragraph 3 of Article 22 with effect that the Department will be required to include in its register of disqualification orders particulars of disqualification undertakings accepted under sections 8ZF and 8ZG of the 1986 Act, as they extend to Northern Ireland, and of leave granted in relation to such undertakings.\nParagraph 4 of Regulation 10 extends paragraph 4 of Article 22 with effect that it will oblige the Department to expunge from its register of disqualification orders all information about disqualification orders made and disqualification undertakings accepted under sections 8ZF and 8ZG of the 1986 Act on their ceasing to be in force.\nA regulatory impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument as no impact on the private or voluntary sectors is foreseen. An Explanatory Memorandum is published alongside the instrument at www.legislation.gov.uk",
  "extent": "N.I.",
  "status": null,
  "version": "current",
  "annotations": [],
  "outstanding_effects": [],
  "provenance": {
    "source": "legislation.gov.uk",
    "source_url": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/nisr/2025/14/note",
    "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29T00:26:57.475368+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."
}