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You can be banned (鈥榙isqualified鈥�) from being a company director if you don鈥檛 meet your legal responsibilities.

鈥楿nfit conduct鈥� includes:

• allowing a company to continue trading when it can鈥檛 pay its debts
• not keeping proper company accounting records
• not sending accounts and returns to Companies House
• not paying tax owed by the company
• using company money or assets for personal benefit

How disqualification works

The Insolvency Service may investigate your company (or you personally as a director of your company) if it鈥檚 involved in insolvency proceedings or if there鈥檚 been a complaint.

If they think you haven鈥檛 followed your legal responsibilities as a director, they鈥檒l tell you in writing:

• what they think you鈥檝e done that makes you unfit to be a director
• they intend to start the disqualification process
• how you can respond

You can either:

• wait for The Insolvency Service to take you to court to disqualify you - you can defend the case in court if you disagree with The Insolvency Service
• give The Insolvency Service a 鈥榙isqualification undertaking鈥� - this means you voluntarily disqualify yourself and ends court action against you

Apart from The Insolvency Service, other bodies can apply to have you disqualified under certain circumstances, eg:

• Companies House
• the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA)
• the courts
• a company insolvency practitioner

If you鈥檙e disqualified

You鈥檒l be disqualified for up to 15 years.

You can鈥檛:

• be a director of any company registered in the UK or an overseas company that has connections with the UK
• be involved in forming, marketing or running a company

Your details will be published online in:

• - your details will automatically be removed from the database when your disqualification ends
• in the last 3 months, including details of why you were banned

You must ask a court for permission if you want to be a company director while you鈥檙e disqualified. You can get help from a legal adviser.

Other restrictions

There are other restrictions if you鈥檙e disqualified. For example, you might not be able to:

• sit on the board of a charity, school or police authority
• be a pension trustee
• be a registered social landlord
• sit on a health board or social care body
• be a solicitor, barrister or accountant