§ Sir G. Nabarroasked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (1) whether he is satisfied with the workings of Sections 165 to 168 of the Companies Act, 1948, as amended; and whether he will make a statement;
360W(2) whether he will bring forward legislation to amend Sections 165 to 168 of the Companies Act, 1948, as amended, so as to prevent the publication of reports which declare that an individual is unfitted to be a steward of a publicly quoted company.
§ Mr. RidleyAll aspects of company law are being considered during our current review.
§ Sir G. Nabarroasked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry whether he will now give instructions that no action is in future to be taken by his Department upon any report made under Sections 165 to 168 of the Companies Act, 1948, as amended, in which serious adverse criticisms are made of any person who has not been informed in advance that the inspectors propose to make such criticisms of him and given adequate opportunity to answer them.
§ Mr. RidleyIt is not my intention to issue an instruction of the kind suggested by my hon. Friend. I consider it to be sufficient that a person should have had the opportunity to deal with any criticism made of him in the course of an inquiry without necessarily being told that the inspectors proposed to adopt such criticism.