Company Law Reform Bill [HL]

My Lords, the Government’s proposition does not rest on my experience of these matters. The people who are addressing it are considerably more up to date than I am. But I see no good reason, other than cost, for not giving those members and third parties access to the audit engagement letter. It might, as has been suggested, be a very dull and turgid document that few shareholders would choose to read, but should they not have the opportunity? Only yesterday, the noble Lord, Lord Hodgson, was arguing vehemently for shareholder democracy. In Grand Committee, the noble Lord, Lord Sharman, said that engagement letters would tell you more about what the auditors are not going to do than what they are going to do, a point he has just reiterated. That is information to which investors should have access.