My Lords, I am rather puzzled by one of the arguments that the noble Lord, Lord Flight, has advanced in favour of his amendment. As the noble Lord, Lord Phillips, has just said, it appears that the noble Lord, Lord Flight, has not read the impact assessment on this Bill. It was highlighted in the impact assessment that the majority of shell companies, which are often the vehicles of choice for money laundering and other criminality, would be classified as small businesses. To exclude them would, as the noble Lord, Lord Phillips, said, leave the door wide open and not solve one of the major problems that this legislation is looking to solve.
The noble Lord, Lord Flight, mentioned burdens on small companies. Of course I do not want to create burdens on any kind of company, but I believe that when a law is justified and has been implemented, small companies have a duty to keep on top of that legislation and make sure that they are not caught out by having failed to identify their person of significant control. As the noble Lord, Lord Flight, said, the vast majority of the companies are small companies owned by the people that run them, so they will have nothing to declare; they will have simply to say that the managing director and the chief executive is the person of significant control and that will be the end of it. The burdens on small companies, I suggest, are actually very slight and for that reason I would argue against this amendment and hope it will not be proceeded with.