I thank the noble Baroness for that reply. I should have said at the outset that I was grateful to her and to her colleagues for organising a couple of meetings on this issue, which a number of noble Lords present attended and which were very helpful in providing us with background to this section of the Bill.
In her response the Minister alluded to the question which has been long debated but is still unresolved, of whether Britain should have a Chapter 11-style approach to trying to maintain companies that get themselves into difficulties. I have amendments later on in the Marshalled List, where we will come back to the more substantive issues here, so I will not deal with that in any detail now. However, it is worth saying that while the detail of Chapter 11 is not appropriate for translation across to the British system—or at least not at present—the one important thing that comes through in that is a very strong sense that existing companies should be retained and encouraged to try to trade themselves through the difficulties that they may be experiencing at the time. It is in that sense, and that sense only, that the questions posed in my original statement still hang in the air.
There is an awkwardness here. A one-year administration when many processes need to go beyond two years, a need to apply to courts or to other authorities to get an extension of the administration period, perhaps to two years, and the knowledge that most administrations actually complete within two years all suggest that there is a bit of a case here which would provide the struggling company, which will eventually be successful but is currently going through difficulty, an easier route through. I do not put it any stronger than that. That was behind the letter but the Government have set their mind against it. We will probably have to come back to this at some future date but at this stage I withdraw the amendment.