Directors who have dissolved companies to avoid paying staff or pensions could be fined or disqualified for the first time, the government has announced. In a package of reforms announced today, struggling companies will be given more time to explore rescue options while shareholders will be given more powers to hold boardrooms to account, the Financial Times reported. Greg Clark, business secretary, launched a consultation into corporate governance and insolvency in March, in the wake of what it called “recent corporate governance failures”.

The U.K. government said it will move forward with plans to punish directors who fail to safeguard their workers from the effects of a company’s bankruptcy, Bloomberg News reported. New powers announced Sunday will be given to the U.K. Insolvency Service, including the ability to issue fines or even disqualifications to company bosses if they are found to have tried to avoid paying a dissolved company’s debts.

The British government issued its first contingency plans on Thursday for leaving the European Union without an agreement, seeking to prepare the public for possible disruptions without spreading alarm that could undermine support for the entire undertaking, the International New York Times reported. The government emphasized that it hoped and expected to hammer out a deal with the European Union.

It was a seething, stomping protest in this ordinarily genteel medieval town: Throngs of residents, whistling and booing, swarmed the county hall. “Criminals!” they shouted. They held up banners that read: “Tory councilors wanted for crimes against people in Northamptonshire.” The crime? The bankruptcy of their Conservative-led local government, which has a budget deficit so big that councilors are stripping away all but the minimum services required by law, the International New York Times reported.

AQ/AQ founder Julie Lingard has filed a notice to creditors to continue trading her business, despite filing for insolvency in July, Retail Gazette reported. Lingard was the managing director of AQ/AQ when it appointed liquidators on July 4. Insolvency specialists AABRS were brought in to handle the liquidation after a special resolution passed by the company to voluntarily wind up the business. However, Lingard has since filed a notice to creditors on July 25 to allow ”the re-use of a prohibited name”.

PwC should have flagged significant doubts over the future of BHS in an audit that was completed just days before the now collapsed British retailer was sold for a token one pound in 2015, a regulator said on Wednesday. BHS, which was sold in 2015 by billionaire retailer Philip Green’s Taveta Group, had 163 stores and 11,000 staff when it collapsed a year later, triggering a political firestorm, Reuters reported. The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) watchdog in June fined PwC a record 6.5 million pounds ($8.3 million) and former partner Stephen Denison 325,000 pounds.

British home improvement retailer Homebase said on Tuesday it planned to close 42 stores, putting 1,500 jobs at risk, with new owner Hilco Capital seeking to reduce its cost base in a brutal trading environment, Reuters reported. Hilco acquired the struggling chain from Australian group Wesfarmers for a nominal 1 pound in May. Homebase said the proposed closures form part of a so-called Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) restructuring, allowing the business to avoid insolvency or administration.

Sports Direct International Plc says it will continue to operate most of House of Fraser Ltd.’s 59 U.K. and Ireland department stores after rescuing the chain from near collapse, Bloomberg News reported. “Our aim is to keep at least 80 percent of the stores open,” Liam Rowley, Sports Direct’s head of strategic investments, said Tuesday in an interview on Bloomberg TV with Anna Edwards and Manus Cranny.

Sports Direct, the British sportswear retailer controlled by tycoon Mike Ashley, has snapped up House of Fraser from the department store group’s administrators for 90 million pounds ($115 million), Reuters reported. Billionaire Ashley, who also owns English Premier League soccer club Newcastle United, said on Friday his ambition was to transform House of Fraser “into the Harrods of the High Street” - a reference to the Qatari-owned luxury department store in London that was once owned by House of Fraser. Sports Direct bought House of Fraser’s 58 UK stores, its brand and all its stock.

The future of House of Fraser will be settled in the next 48 hours as at least four bidders tabled rescue proposals for the struggling UK department store group. Two people familiar with the situation confirmed that Philip Day, the Dubai-based entrepreneur and owner of Edinburgh Woollen Mill, had put forward a plan that would avoid House of Fraser going into administration first, the Financial Times reported. Representatives for Mr Day declined to comment.