Company Law Reform Bill [HL]

I thank the noble Lord, Lord Sharman, for his support for this amendment. The Minister has put on the table not so much half a loaf as a slice of bread. He says ““not in this Bill””, but this is the Bill we are working on. I hope the Minister will reflect that his response, which talked about the POBA making an annual report to the Secretary of State, simply did not meet the points I made about transparency. This is an entirely appropriate place in which to designate a body under the Freedom of Information Act when we consider the particular type of body and type of information here, rather than invoking the provisions of the Act. This is the right place to consider whether it is appropriate. The Minister’s reply suggested to me that this would not come to fruition in any reasonably short timeframe, which is why I was not quite as welcoming as the Minister would have hoped. We will return to this matter on Report, because this is an important issue of transparency. It is, as the noble Lord, Lord Sharman, correctly stated, an issue that audit committees and companies have to grapple with on a day-to-day basis and yet they are denied the very information that would help them to discharge correctly their responsibilities under the corporate governance code. I hope the Minister has noted that we have a serious intent in this regard. For today, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.