DUTY OF DIRECTOR TO NOTIFY COMPANY OF ACQUISITION ETC. OF ITS SECURITIES. (Hansard, 19 October 1976)

§ Mr. Clinton Davis
I beg to move Amendment No. 48, in page 25, line 12, leave out 'three' and insert 'five'.

§ Mr. Deputy Speaker (Mr. Bryant Godman Irvine)
With this we may take Government Amendments Nos. 51 and 52.

§ Mr. Davis
Clause 22(1) and Clause 23(1) reduce from 14 days to three days the statutory periods, prescribed under Sections 27, as extended by Section 31, and 33 of the 1967 Act, within which a director and a major shareholder, respectively, must make notifications to a company in connection with their interests in its shares. These amendments increase the period from three to five days, since three days seemed to us on reflection to be unreasonably short.

§ Mr. Higgins
This is an amendment to one of the warehousing clauses that we moved in Committee. I made it clear then that the Government would no doubt wish to consider the precise wording and the precise substance of the clause. No doubt they have carried out consultation with the expert bodies which will need to operate the clause and which have an interest in it. I think the best thing to do is to say that we understand the Government's position. We would not wish to dissent from the amendment. No doubt both sides of the House would wish to see how the thing works out in practice, 1376 and in the light of that experience we shall, hopefully, have an opportunity of reconsidering the matter in the next Session.