Company Law Reform Bill [HL]

I thank the Minister for that reply but I suggest that it was classic DTI think—that is, if you have got a problem, you have got to have another offence in the Bill. In fact, I think the Minister would want to add two offences to the Bill if this modest little amendment was accepted. That is the wrong way round of thinking about it. At the moment, there is no requirement for the auditor to attend or say anything at an annual meeting, and yet, by creating audit concerns, we have not squared the circle to ensure that the auditor is there. All the amendment seeks to do is to require the auditor to be there and to be prepared to speak. At the moment auditors do not speak, other than, perhaps, to read their audit report. But there is no statutory obligation for them to do that and it is not an invariable practice. The amendment seeks to take the procedure one stage further. Without it, that will not happen. I hope the Minister will think again about this issue. If he really wants to take the practice forward there will have to be some shift in his position—preferably without introducing another couple of statutory offences.