Company Law Reform Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 224:"Page 197, line 3, at end insert—" ““(   )   The copy of the auditor’s report delivered to the registrar under this section must— (a)   state the name of the auditor and (where the auditor is a firm) the name of the person who signed it as senior statutory auditor, or (b)   if the conditions in section (Circumstances in which names may be omitted) (circumstances in which names may be omitted) are met, state that a resolution has been passed and notified to the Secretary of State in accordance with that section.”” The noble Lord said: My Lords, I beg to move Amendment No. 224 and speak to Amendments Nos. 225, 226, 230, 231, 236, 327 and 328. These are technical amendments to ensure that the rules on inclusion of auditors’ names in published audit reports also apply to the copies of audit reports that are filed at Companies House. For companies subject to the small companies regime, Amendment No. 224 inserts an obligation to include the auditor’s name and the senior statutory auditor if the auditor is not an individual, in the copy of the audit report filed with the registrar. This largely restates the requirement in the Companies Act 1985. Amendments Nos. 225, 226 and 230 do the same thing for companies that are respectively medium-sized, unquoted and quoted. Amendment No. 231 is simply consequential. Amendments Nos. 327 and 328 replace Clause 497 with two new clauses. The first restates the obligation currently in Clause 497 to include the auditors’ names in published copies of audit reports. The second restates the exception where there is a risk of violence or intimidation but now applies both to published and to filed copies of the audit report. I beg to move. On Question, amendment agreed to. Clause 428 [Filing obligations of medium-sized companies]: