Company Law Reform Bill [HL]

My Lords, I give a broad welcome to Amendment No. 196, but if it had gone a little further, the amendments in the next group might not have been necessary. There are two points on which I would like to ask my noble friend for a little more information. In his introductory remarks, he used the words ““other than small companies””. What does he mean by that? My understanding is that the Government were talking about 1,500 companies, and I would have wished to argue that the scope of the amendment should have gone as far as 37,000 companies. That would still exclude the small ones but it would include the bulk of the companies to which this amendment would appropriately apply. Secondly, I endorse the comment from the Liberal Democrat Benches that it is a pity that Amendment No. 196 does not include reporting standards. Surely it would be desirable to have them, and I hope that my noble friend can give us some reassurance on that.