COMMONS AMENDMENT (Hansard, 27 July 1967)

§ LORD WALSTON
My Lords, this Amendment requires that a director of a company should notify that company of any interest he has in the company's shares or debentures, or in the shares or debentures of other companies in the 1200 same group. The rules in Clause 27 give a wide meaning to the expression "being interested in shares or debentures", and there is a possibility that some of the interests to be notified will not in fact be of much interest. If these interests can be identified, it is clearly better that they should be excluded for the purposes of the clause. This Amendment, No. 65, will make this possible, since it makes the obligations imposed on directors by the clause subject to any exceptions for which provision may be made by regulations made by the Board of Trade by Statutory Instrument. I beg to move that the House doth agree with the Commons in this Amendment.

§ LORD BOOTHBY
My Lords, perhaps I may ask the noble Lord, Lord Walston, whether he could give the distinction between, or an explanation of, the words "interest" and "ownership", because I think it is rather important.

§ LORD WALSTON
I think that if the noble Lord studies the Bill he will discover the legal distinction between those two words; and perhaps it would be for the convenience of the House if he made that discovery himself rather than if I quoted it to him.

§ LORD BOOTHBY
I will try.

§ LORD ERROLL OF HALE
I think we can say that this Amendment represents a modest improvement in the Bill. But can the noble Lord say whether the Statutory Instrument will be subject to the Affirmative or the Negative Resolution procedure?

§ LORD WALSTON
Without actually looking it up, I cannot say. I believe it is the Negative Resolution procedure; but I will let the noble Lord know.