Company Law Reform Bill [HL]

Much of Clause 751—that is, subsections (1) to (4)—will, we hope, be replaced by a new clause before Clause 762, which we spoke to as government Amendment No. A213 under Part 22 of the Bill earlier during this Committee. The new clause before Clause 762 is a general provision covering the meaning of the terms ““hard copy””, ““electronic form””, ““electronic means”” and related expressions. These replace repeated or slightly varying provisions in Clauses 167 and 722 as well as Clause 751 that previously performed the same function. I understand the Committee’s desire to ensure that definitions used in the Bill are brought into line with existing legislation. However, the definition of ““electronic communications”” in the Electronic Communications Act 2000 includes telephone calls. ““Electronic form”” communications under the Bill cannot be by telephone. This is plainly right in policy terms. For example, the nature of written resolutions—which can be passed in hard copy or electronic form—makes them inappropriate to be passed over the telephone. We think that it is useful to flag this difference of approach by use of different terminology. In addition, in Clause 751(3), we have used terminology drawn from the amended first company law directive. This is necessary for our implementation of the directive, which relates to the provisions on the Registrar of Companies in Part 26. We think that it is more useful to have a unified approach to electronic communications in this Bill than across different types of legislation with different purposes. We hope that noble Lords will withdraw their amendments and let Clause 751 stand part.