An Insolvency Service spokesperson said: “The Insolvency Service, acting on behalf of the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, has accepted a disqualification undertaking from Richard Howson for 8 years for his conduct as a director of Carillion Plc.

“This follows the disqualification undertakings the Insolvency Service accepted from Zafar Khan on 29 June 2023 and from Richard Adam on 13 July 2023.

“As the litigation against the remaining directors is ongoing, with a trial set to commence the week of 16 October 2023, we are unable to comment any further.”

Mr Howson was found responsible for a series of accounting misrepresentations during his tenure. He improperly accounted for significant construction contracts, which included prominent projects like the Royal Liverpool University Hospital, Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route, and Battersea Power Station, amongst others. This obscured the actual decline in performance of these contracts, which were in fact incurring losses.

In both 2013 and 2016, Mr Howson oversaw incorrect reporting and accounting of payments from Wipro, violating multiple international accounting standards (IAS) and the IFRS framework for financial reporting. This resulted in significant overstatements of profit and understatements of net debt for Carillion. He failed to present these discrepancies to the company’s auditors.

The financial statements for 2015 and 2016, prepared under Mr Howson’s supervision, were found to be misleading. They did not accurately represent the financial reality of Carillion, with the 2015 misstatement being £95.4 million and the 2016 misstatement amounting to £208.5m combined for major contracts and other transactions.

Mr Howson also authorised market announcements in December 2016, March 2017, and May 2017, which were found to be deceptive regarding Carillion’s financial standing. He then sanctioned a 2016 final dividend payment of £54.4m in June 2017, a move deemed unjustifiable based on the actual financial data of the company.