Company Law Reform Bill [HL]

My Lords, I rise to support the noble Lord, Lord Hodgson, in these amendments. It is important to understand that current practice is for most annual general meetings of shareholders to be conducted by poll. This is not something that happened under the 1948 Act or preceding Acts. The notion of a poll under those pieces of legislation was of something that happened when the board was in trouble and not supported by a show of hands. Today it is common practice for everything to be conducted by poll. The poll is usually conducted by the registrar, who is usually pretty independent anyway, so I do not see the need for this. It is additional bureaucracy that almost defies belief. I really support this amendment. We have adequate arrangements already and this is overkill.