I thank the Minister for her comments. In answer to her direct question of whether she interpreted our comments correctly, as far as I am concerned she did. I will leave the noble Lord, Lord Flight, to respond, but my impression is that she also got to the heart of his comments.
I am still concerned about two things, although I will read what the noble Baroness said in Hansard and reflect upon it. As the noble Lord, Lord Flight, said, we have a brilliant IP insolvency system, which comes high in the rankings. However, that is because it spends a lot of time and effort bringing creditors into play. Whenever we see this dilution coming through in the Government’s Bill here, I worry about that. I understand the cost argument. It must be right that cost is taken out of this where it can be, but the creditors are important, particularly in relation to small businesses, which are after all the subject of the Bill. Creditors can often be critical friends as well as antagonists in these matters, so simply to disengage them from an area is not right. I think that we share the common view that, where possible, we should be careful about doing anything that diminishes the role that creditors or creditors’ committees may play. However, I take the point that there are costs that need to be balanced up.
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My second point is that the aim of a lot of this material, in administration particularly, is to keep the company going. I understand the noble Baroness’s point that any irregularity in the actions of the insolvency practitioner would be a matter for the regulatory body, but we are talking about a considerable time difference—he or she may well be acting with malfeasance in relation to the administration at hand, but that will not be picked up until much later, when all the processes have been carried forward, by which time the company may well have gone the way of all flesh. I am not entirely happy with the way in which that argument
has been made, but we will look at what the noble Baroness has said and perhaps come back to this. I beg leave to withdraw the amendment.