Legislative Reform (Limited Partnerships) Order 2009

I support the order before us today. As the Minister knows, limited partnerships—not to be confused with limited liability partnerships—have been used more and more in certain forms of fundraising. Following the advice of the Law Commission, it is extremely important that this structure is assisted by being burdened with, as the noble Lord, Lord De Mauley, said, as little red tape as possible. The Minister has not heard me speak on these orders before and, although I am in danger of becoming a toady, perhaps I may again congratulate his department on the quality of the explanatory document, which is set out in an extremely clear and concise form. This is not a Welsh order, so it will not take the amount of time that anything to do with Wales appears to take. I have only two questions. As we know, the Government withdrew the original order because they felt that the consultation had demonstrated that other items that were going to be set out in the order were highly controversial. When does the Minister think that that consultation exercise on the wider issues raised here will be completed and when will we therefore have the further order? Pressing him a little further, it seems that the major issue of concern was whether the certificate would be conclusive evidence not only of the existence of the limited partnership—that is, the subject of the order that we have before us today—but that all the requirements of the Act had been complied with. That seems to be the controversial issue. Do the Government have a view on that or will they simply wait for the consultation?