Paragraph 87 I1

After modified Article 10 (substituted by paragraph 86 above) insert—

“Office-holder’s report on conduct of officers of the partnership

10A.

(1)

The office-holder in respect of a partnership which is insolvent must prepare a report (a “conduct report”) about the conduct of each person who was an officer of the partnership—

(a)

on the insolvency date, or

(b)

at any time during the period of 3 years ending with that date.

(2)

For the purposes of this Article a partnership is insolvent if—

(a)

the partnership is in liquidation and at the time it went into liquidation its assets were insufficient for the payment of its debts and other liabilities and the expenses of the winding up, or

(b)

the partnership enters administration,

and paragraph (1E) of Article 9 applies for the purposes of this Article as it applies for the purposes of Article 9(1).

(3)

A conduct report must, in relation to each person, describe any conduct of the person which may assist the Department in deciding whether to exercise the power under Article 10(1) or (3) in relation to the person.

(4)

The office-holder must send the conduct report to the Department before the end of—

(a)

the period of 3 months beginning with the insolvency date, or

(b)

such other longer period as the Department considers appropriate in the particular circumstances.

(5)

If new information comes to the attention of an office-holder, the office-holder must send that information to the Department as soon as reasonably practicable.

(6)

“New information” is information which an office-holder considers should have been included in a conduct report prepared in relation to the partnership, or would have been so included had it been available before the report was sent.

(7)

If there is more than one office-holder in respect of a partnership at any particular time (because the partnership is insolvent by virtue of falling within both sub-paragraphs of paragraph (2) at that time), paragraph (1) applies only to the first of the office-holders to be appointed.

(9)

The “office-holder” in respect of a partnership which is insolvent is—

(a)

in the case of a partnership being wound up by the High Court, the official receiver;

(b)

in the case of a partnership in administration, the administrator.

(10)

The “insolvency date”—

(a)

in the case of a partnership being wound up by the High Court, means the date on which the Court makes the winding-up order (see Article 105 of the Insolvency (Northern Ireland) Order 1989);

(b)

in the case of a partnership which has entered administration, means the date the partnership did so.”.