Company Law Reform Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 80:"Page 34, line 31, leave out paragraph (a)." The noble Lord said: In moving the amendment, I also oppose the Question whether Clause 82 shall stand part of the Bill. Clause 82(1)(a) allows the Secretary of State to make provision by regulations to require companies to display specified information in specified locations. In practice, this is often a long list of names that the company has registered that is to be displayed in its office. No one looks at it and it serves no useful purpose. Even more futile is the even longer list of company names displayed in offices of lawyers and chartered accountants. I quite understand and support the need for regulations to provide for certain information to be required to be shown on documents and communications—that is covered in Clause 82(1)(b). I am not sure whether the paragraph covers passive information such as websites but perhaps the Minister will cover that. I am equally happy with Clause 82(1)(c), which requires companies to put information on letterheads and so on. Those are both important aspects of a company’s positioning in the marketplace, but I am less convinced by paragraph (a). In the interests of deregulation, the amendment would remove this admittedly small burden on companies by removing this paragraph from the list of things that the Secretary of State may make provision for by regulation. On the Question whether Clause 82 shall stand part of the Bill, it would be helpful if we could learn from the Minister about the timing of regulations to be made under this clause and where we are with draft regulations. Clearly, our debates on these clauses are better and more informed if we can see what the Government have in mind, since the powers are often wide-ranging. I beg to move.