Company Law Reform Bill [HL]

My Lords, I am extremely grateful that the noble Baroness, Lady Noakes, did not give us the benefit of her wisdom on IFRS or we should still be here tomorrow. However, I agree with the noble Baronesses, Lady Goudie and Lady Noakes, that this area desperately needs attention. Incidentally, it has a much broader application than being for public companies alone but, as the noble Baroness, Lady Goudie, has already remarked, this forum cannot deal with the broader issue on public companies. If one looks carefully at what is happening in the public company arena, the impact of IFRS is that a great many companies and groups are being forced to engage in reconstructions that I regard as completely artificial. Their purpose is to get the reserves in the right place to be able to make the distribution, so a solvency-based test, which has worked well in other parts of the world, is an eminently good solution.