§ Dr. Ho wellsI beg to move amendment No. 51, in page 9, line 40, at end insert—
'(3) Section 356 of that Act (Authority's powers to participate in proceedings: company voluntary arrangements) is amended as follows—(a) for subsection (1), there is substituted—(1) Where a voluntary arrangement has effect under Part I of the 1986 Act in respect of a company or insolvent partnership which is an authorised person, the Authority may apply to the court under section 6 or 7 of that Act.",(b) for subsection (2), there is substituted—(2) Where a voluntary arrangement has been approved under Part II of the 1989 Order in respect of a company or insolvent partnership which is an authorised person, the Authority may apply to the court under Article 19 or 20 of that Order.",(c) in subsection (3), for "either" there is substituted "any" '.
§ Mr. Deputy Speaker (Sir Alan Haselhurst)With this it will be convenient to discuss Government amendments Nos. 52 and 53.
§ Dr. HowellsIn Committee, the hon. Member for South-West Hertfordshire (Mr. Page) asked whether the Financial Services Authority should also be given the right to apply to a court under paragraph 39 of proposed new schedule Al to the Insolvency Act 1986, and he subsequently wrote to me on that point. I have carefully considered what he said, and I have concluded that we should afford the authority that further right—the right to make applications to the court on the grounds that any of the company's creditors or any other person is dissatisfied with the actions of the supervisor, and for the authority to be heard if such an application is made by another.
1156 However, we need to go a stage further. Such rights should also be afforded to the authority in respect of applications under section 7 of the 1986 Act and article 20 of the Insolvency (Northern Ireland) Order 1989. Those involve a procedure relating to existing voluntary arrangements without a moratorium, both here and in Northern Ireland. Such rights were not included in the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 when it was passing through Parliament. We have concluded that they should have been, especially as the authority is given such rights in that Act to make an application and to appear on an application by another, in relation to the actions of a supervisor and the individual voluntary arrangements procedures.
We have therefore tabled amendments Nos. 51, 52 and 53, to give the authority the right to make applications and be heard on applications under those three provisions. All three allow applications to be made where any of the company's creditors, or any other person, is dissatisfied by any act, omission or decision of the supervisor.
§ Mr. PageI wish to express to the Minister my appreciation of the fact that he has listened to the arguments. We shall support him if amendments Nos. 51, 52 and 53 are pressed to a vote.
§ Amendment agreed to.