COMMONS AMENDMENT (Hansard, 27 July 1967)

§ LORD WALSTON

My Lords, coupled with this Amendment are a very large number of subsequent Amendments in the Schedules which, when the time comes, I will move formally. As it is, I do not propose to speak at any length on this Amendment, unless noble Lords would like me to amplify any of my short remarks. Noble Lords will remember that the Jenkins Committee recommended that the accounts of a company should be required to include a summary, covering the five financial years ending with the date of the balance sheet, of issued share capital and reserves, annual profit before and after tax, annual dividend and turnovers. The Bill as at present before your Lordships provides for just that. But subsequently a joint committee of leading accountancy bodies and various other experienced people have pointed out that, although the proposal was welcome in principle, there are very considerable practical difficulties in drawing up such a summary, and possibly these practical dfficulties had not been taken into account in drafting the Bill. Therefore, while I still feel that the proposal is a sound one—and I hope that many companies who do this already will continue to do this sort of thing—the purpose of these Amendments is to leave out all references of summary from the Bill. I beg to move.