§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Corporate Affairs (Mr. John Redwood)I beg to move amendment No. 17, in page 11, line 37, at end insert— '(3A) Where advantage is taken of subsection (3), that fact shall be stated in a note to the company's annual accounts.'
I am grateful that we can now proceed with the Companies Bill. I hope that we can make fairly rapid progress with the technical and fairly straightforward amendments before us, so that we may have real debates on some of the interesting amendments that arise later. As I try to steer my first Bill through Parliament, I cannot but wonder what I have done wrong because every night there seems to be some show arranged that takes hon. Members' minds off the Bill.
Clause 6 of the Bill includes a provision re-enacting existing exemptions from disclosure of the names of certain subsidiaries and related undertakings that date back to the Companies Act 1967 introduced by the then Labour Administration.
This amendment would require a company to disclose in its accounts the fact that it had taken advantage of those exemptions from disclosure. I bring it forward in response to a commitment given in Standing Committee in response to an amendment having the same purpose as this amendment moved by the hon. Member for Norwich, South (Mr. Garrett). We have considered this carefully in the light of our obligations under the fourth and seventh 1131 company law directives and accept that an amendment is needed to give proper effect to article 45.1(b) of the fourth directive and article 35(1)(b) of the seventh directive.
§ Mr. Jim Cousins (Newcastle upon Tyne, Central)Will the notice of the exemption be reflected in the short statement of company accounts, which is also provided for in the Bill? It is important that all shareholders should be aware of the fact that the exemption is being taken advantage of, and it should therefore form part of the information that is provided in short company statements.
§ Mr. RedwoodI shall endeavour to ensure that it does so appear because I accept the hon. Gentleman's point.
§ Amendment agreed to.
§ Amendment made: No. 18, in page 13, line 2, at end insert `to this Act'.—[Mr. Redwood.]