#Leveson :News International misses deadline to file its accounts

News International has failed to meet the Companies House deadline to file its accounts and has asked for a month's extension.

The company, which trades under the name of NI Group Ltd, made the request following its failure to post accounts for the year up to 3 July 2011 by the due date of 31 March.

An NI spokesperson said: "Companies House has been informed of a delay to these accounts being submitted. They will be filed with the registrar within the next month."

The spokesperson declined to say why the delay had occurred.

A Companies House spokesman said requests for extensions were not wholly unusual. However, large companies generally filed by the due date. Requests for month-long extension were rare.

Accounts were filed for two key divisions of News International: News Group Newspapers - which publishes The Sun and formerly published the News of the World - and Times Newspapers Ltd, which publishes The Times and Sunday Times.

Those documents are not yet available for inspection, according to the Companies House website. The News of the World was closed in July last year just after the relevant accounting period.

Coincidentally, News International's company secretary of many years standing, Mrs Carla Stone, has resigned.

A filing to Companies House, dated yesterday, stated that her appointment had been terminated. However, I understand that she left the company in February and her formal employment contract ends later this month.

Stone, a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Secretaries, held 212 company directorships in all, almost all of which are subsidiaries of News International and related companies.

She is still listed as a director of many of those businesses.

Souirce: Greenslade Blog - Guardian