Company Law Reform Bill [HL]

My Lords, I very much agree with the noble Viscount, Lord Bledisloe, but I want to say a few words in support of my noble friend Lord Freeman. He is more moderate than I. Looking at the six duties on directors, none of them seems to me to be in any way in conflict with the overall duty to look after the interests of the shareholder and to promote value. Listening to the debate and particularly the comments by the noble Lord, Lord Razzall, and his quite unfair attack on the Leader of the Opposition—he is normally quite sensible—it seems to me to suggest that if one is pursuing the interests of shareholders, that somehow is in conflict with taking decisions with a view to the long term, or taking decisions with a view to the interests of the employees. Surely we want boards of directors in our country who get out there and win business and create wealth and prosperity. That is what their duty is. If the noble Lord, Lord Razzall, is worried about the environment, there are enough regulations on the environment to sink a ship, to which businesses must operate under the rule of law. The last thing that you want to have in the boardroom is uncertainty, a lack of clarity and a professional class of directors who are constantly looking over their shoulders, assisted by expensive lawyers who distract them from the business of wealth creation. We have had 2,000 jobs lost by NTL and 2,000 jobs lost by Peugeot, and we are beginning to see on the news the job losses clicking up. We have the Government’s Better Regulation Task Force saying that regulation now costs 11 per cent of GDP, which is more than the entire revenue from income tax, and here we are trying to bring into the boardroom more burdens and more responsibilities that have nothing whatever to do with what boards of directors are about. Boards of directors are not politicians, they are not local authorities and they are not social workers. They are there to advance the interests of a company to create wealth; and that is in the interest of communities and employees. My noble friend is absolutely right to scratch this from the Bill. It is part of the creeping political correctness that we see going into industry, and part of a Government who seem to want to achieve nationalisation again by regulation and by the back door.