Company Law Reform Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 316:"Page 232, line 24, leave out ““proper”” and insert ““adequate””" The noble Baroness said: My Lords, in moving Amendment No. 316, I shall also speak to Amendments Nos. 318 and 320, which are in my name in this group. I am delighted to see that the Minister’s name has been added to two of the amendments. I support Amendments Nos. 317 and 319 in the Minister’s name alone. There is just one amendment in the group to which the noble Lord has not added his name, and I shall deal with that. These amendments align the description of the standard that accounting records should reach between those contained in the duty on directors in Clause 364 and those for the auditor’s report by virtue of Clause 490. The term will be standardised as ““adequate””. Companies Acts in the past had the auditors reporting against a different standard of ““proper””. We welcome the Government’s amendments to bring the wording together. I should like to speak to Amendment No. 320, which clearly has not found favour with the Minister. The amendment is chiefly the result of using the same word, ““adequate””, but I wanted to make sure that the meanings between Clauses 364 and 490 were fully aligned and so tabled Amendment No. 320, which positively states that ““adequate accounting records”” means the same thing in both places. If the Minister can tell me that the Government believe this is achieved by the other amendments in this group, and that Amendment No. 320 is unnecessary, I shall be content. I beg to move.