§ Order for Second Reading read.
12.21 am§ The Solicitor-General (Sir Patrick Mayhew)I beg to move, That the Bill be now read a Second time.
This Bill, and the Bill which the House is to consider next—the Company Directors Disqualification Bill—are the product of a single consolidation exercise and are therefore closely linked. With the permission of the House, I will speak to both Bills now since it is not really possible to explain why the consolidation exercise was necessary without referring to both Bills.
This consolidation presents an unusual feature in that much of the legislation which is to be consolidated is of very recent origin. The principal legislation concerned is a part of the Companies Act 1985 and the bulk of the Insolvency Act 1985. The House will recall that the Companies Act was itself passed as part of a major consolidating exercise. The Insolvency Act made major revisions in the law relating to personal bankruptcy and also made amendments to the companies legislation. Necessary though it was to enact these two major pieces of legislation last year, the result has been to leave the law relating to insolvency split between two statutes. It was recognised that this left the law in an unsatisfactory state and a consolidating exercise was at once set in hand. Fortunately, since the bulk of the Insolvency Act was not to come into force before the end of this year, the opportunity arises to effect the consolidation with the minimum of disruption to practitioners in this area of the law and anybody else affected by it, and before a large body of supplementary subordinate legislation comes to be made.
The Insolvency Bill now before the House contains in one code of legislation the law relating to insolvency as respects both companies and individuals. The Company Directors Disqualification Bill brings together the provisions concerning disqualification from the management of companies.
Both Bills have been passed in another place where they were referred, in the usual way, to the Joint Committee on Consolidation, &c., Bills. The Joint Committee reported that the Bills were pure consolidation, though a small number of drafting changes and corrections were made by the Joint Committee and at Committee stage in another place. We are, as always, grateful to the Committee for its painstaking scrutiny. The two Bills constitute a very necessary consolidation in this most important area of the law and they will be of great benefit to practitioners and others. Our gratitude is due to the draftsman for producing the Bills in the short time available and to the Joint Committee for its consideration of the Bills.
§ Mr. Nicholas Brown (Newcastle upon Tyne, East)It is unusual for the House to consider legislation that was passed only last year, but there are good reasons for doing so, and I am sure that the legislation will be welcome in its new form, especially to practitioners, as the Solicitor-General said.
I understand that these are the last two Bills that will be considered by the Consolidation Committee under the chairmanship of Lord Brightman. I associate the Opposition with the tribute to his work, which is much appreciated by the House.
§ Question put and agreed to.
§ Bill accordingly read a Second time.
§ Bill committed to a Committee of the whole House. [Mr. Lennox-Boyd.]
§ Bill immediately considered in Committee; reported, without amendment.
§ Bill read the Third time, and passed, without amendment.