Political Parties (Donations) (Hansard, 20 May 1992)

§ Mr. Austin Mitchell
To ask the President of the Board of Trade whether he has any proposals for legislation under which the approval of a company's employees would be needed before a company could make any financial donations to political parties.

§ Mr. Neil Hamilton
No.

§ Mr. Austin Mitchell
To ask the President of the Board of Trade whether he has any proposals for legislation under which companies making losses would be forbidden from making donations to political parties.

§ Mr. Neil Hamilton
No.

§ Mr. Austin Mitchell
To ask the President of the Board of Trade how many auditing firms are regulated by the recognised supervisory bodies.

§ Mr. Neil Hamilton
At 12 May some 16,000 firms were registered with supervisory bodies under the Companies Act 1989.

§ Mr. Austin Mitchell
To ask the President of the Board of Trade whether he has any plans to propose legislation under which an independent statutory body would be responsible for appointing auditors to major companies.

§ Mr. Neil Hamilton
No.

§ Mr. Austin Mitchell
To ask the President of the Board of Trade whether he has any proposals for legislation under which external auditors would be prevented from(a) performing actuarial tasks for their audit clients and (b) recruiting directors for their audit clients.

§ Mr. Neil Hamilton
No. It is a condition for recognition under part II of and schedule 11 to the Companies Act 156W 1989 that supervisory bodies must have adequate rules and practices regarding the professional integrity and independence of company auditors. In addition shareholders will in future have information provided under the Companies Act 1985 (Disclosure of Remuneration for Non-Audit Work) Regulations 1991, which require companies that are not small or medium-sized to disclose in their accounts the remuneration of their auditors and their associates for non-audit work for the company and its associated undertakings.

§ Mr. Austin Mitchell
To ask the President of the Board of Trade whether he has any proposals for requiring all major public limited companies to have(a) internal audit departments and (b) audit committees.

§ Mr. Neil Hamilton
No. These are matters for individual companies.