Company Law Reform Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. A245: "Page 391, line 20, leave out subsection (2)." The noble Baroness said: Amendment No. A245 deletes subsection (2) of Clause 826 on a probing basis. Clause 826 sets out the role of the independent supervisor and subsection (2) states that he must enter into supervision arrangements with another body and must then oversee those arrangements. That is, the independent supervisor is not allowed to oversee the auditors general directly, but can oversee some other body overseeing the auditors general. This is, at best, a job creation scheme and, at worst, wasteful duplication. I know the Minister with his Treasury hat on has considerable interest in efficiency—or lack of it—in the public sector. The Bill allows auditor generals to do company audits, but then sets up an elaborate, but artificial, set of oversight arrangements. Can the Minister say why, if the same oversight body as that for the general body of auditors is to be involved—which the Minister has confirmed today is the intention—we have to set up these special arrangements for an independent supervisor who then does nothing of substance? Would it not be simpler to make the auditors general subject to the main audit oversight regime, with additional or modified powers, if that were considered appropriate? Amendment No. A245 is a probing amendment. If the Minister cannot provide strong reasons for these odd arrangements we might consider a more extensive simplification of this over-complex Bill at Report. I beg to move.