§ Mr. BellinghamTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what plans she has to require fund managers to disclose how they vote at annual meetings. [168894]
§ Jacqui SmithThe Government are committed to improving the voting processes in public companies as an important means of promoting better engagement by all shareholders in the companies in which they invest. We therefore welcomed Paul Myners' report to the Shareholder Voting Working Group, published on 3 February 2004.
1156WAs we stated in the White Paper on Modernising Company Law, while in principle we believe that it would be in the public interest to require institutional investors to disclose how they have voted their shares, there are practical difficulties in implementing such a requirement through company law. We are therefore still giving detailed consideration to the Company Law Review proposals in this complex area and will set out our position in due course.