Written question asked by Stephen O'Brien (Conservative) on Thursday, 18 December 2003, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 7 January 2004. It was answered by Gerry Sutcliffe (Labour) on Wednesday, 7 January 2004 on behalf of the Department of Trade and Industry.

Dept of Trade and Industry

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, what steps the Government is taking to encourage shareholders to vote at the Annual General meetings of FTSE All-Share companies.

Answer: Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what steps the Government is taking to encourage shareholders to vote at the Annual General meetings of FTSE All-Share companies. [146150] Mr. Sutcliffe: The Government regards shareholder voting at company meetings as an integral part of shareholder engagement with the companies in which they invest. We fully support the continuing work of the Shareholder Voting Working Group, which has recently embarked upon a new project to identify, and propose practical solutions to, the impediments to casting proxy votes successfully at company meetings. The objective is for there to be a noticeable improvement in time for the 2004 AGM voting season. The Government has already enabled shareholders, through the Companies Act 1985 (Electronic Communications) Order 2000 implemented in December 2000, to use electronic communications to appoint a proxy. This enables shareholders to issue voting instructions electronically. As stated in our White Paper in July 2002, we also propose to introduce legislative measures to improve the rights of proxies. This will enable investors and others holding shares through intermediaries to ensure more easily that the voting rights in a company are exercised.

Secondary information