Company Law Reform Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. A233: "Page 377, line 33, leave out from ““person”” to end and insert ““to whom this Chapter applies””" The noble Lord said: Grouped with Amendment No. A233 are Amendments Nos. A234, A235 and A236. They are designed to remove some confusion and instil clarity. In Clause 799, Amendment No. A233 leaves out from ““person”” and inserts ““to whom this Chapter applies””. The clause sets out requirements for the display of information by persons to whom Chapter 2 applies. Those persons do not include corporate bodies, as Clause 797(1) shows, and yet the word ““person”” in Clause 799(1), given its statutory meaning, does include corporate bodies. That suggests that the words in Clause 799(1) are misleading and should be replaced as I have suggested. The same changes are required to Clauses 799(2) and 801(1), which is the purpose of Amendments Nos. A235 and A236. Amendment No. A234 is intended to clarify a source of confusion. There has for some time been confusion about whether the expression ““business letter”” as used in the Business Names Act 1985 includes not only hard-copy letters sent through the post but also faxes and emails. In practice, responsible organisations to which the 1985 Act applies have assumed that such forms of communication were included in the expression ““business letters””, but we suggest that the matter should be put beyond doubt, also in relation to written orders for goods to which Clause 799 also applies. The Committee will note that the expressions ““hard copy form”” and ““electronic form”” are defined in Clause 751. I beg to move.