§ Mr. Kenneth Bakerasked the Secretary of State for Trade when the Companies Act 1980 will be brought into effect; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. EyreI have made the commencement order to bring into effect on 23 June certain provisions of the Companies Act 1980. These are: section 46 which lays down that directors are to have regard in the performance of their functions to the interests of the company's employees; sections 68.73 which make insider dealing a criminal offence; section 80 which (together with schedule 2) revises the mode of trial and penalties for offences under the Companies Acts 1948 to 1976 and revises the definition of a default fine in relation to offences under the Companies Acts 1948 to 1980; section 81 which confers a power to alter the requirements as to the matters to be stated in the directors' report; section 83 which continues the application of certain provisions of the Protection of Depositors Act 1963 for deposit-takers not licensed under the Banking Act 1979; and relevant parts of section 84 and sections 86 to 90 which deal with minor amendments, repeals, interpretation, technical provisions and corresponding provision for Northern Ireland. Amongst the minor and consequential amendments is an amendment to section 54 of the 1948 Act which enables financial assistance to be provided by companies for employee share schemes as defined in the 1980 Act.
639WWork is in hand on the implementation of the rest of the Act and I hope that this will be completed later this year.