Company Law Reform Bill [HL]

I am grateful for the way in which the Minister responded. He assumes that shareholders know rather a lot about the process of auditor resignation; that they know they can go to Companies House and look for a statement of reasons or, if they do not get anything, they can infer that there is no statement of reason or that it has been withheld. That is asking rather a lot of shareholders. The amendment was designed to give shareholders some form of useful information, which is at least that the company is applying for information to be withheld from them. In those terms, it was a very modest amendment and not what the UK Shareholders Association would prefer. I hope that the Minister and his officials might look at the matter again as the Bill assumes that there is a very sophisticated knowledge of auditor resignation among shareholders. I assure the Minister that there is not even sophisticated knowledge about auditor resignations among your average auditor. As I shall come on to say under a later group of amendments, things are now so complicated that it stretches credibility to think that the whole of the outside world is expert on these details. I hope that the Minister will reconsider. I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn. [Amendment No. 327 not moved.] Clause 507 agreed to. Clause 508 agreed to. Clause 509 [Copy of statement to be sent to appropriate audit authority]: