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Company Law Reform Bill [HL]

My name is added to Amendment No. 161. We on this side of the Committee endorse the concept of enlightened shareholder value. At this stage in the debate, we are dealing with the enlightened part of the value and Clause 156(3) concerns how we will deal with that. Amendment No. 161 clarifies the obligation set out there. The clause requires the directors,"““in so far as is reasonably practicable, [to] have regard to””." As currently drafted, that seems to me to be an absolute requirement, and that is the advice that I have had from the Law Society. It is a significant change from the current law and it will make litigation much more likely, as the noble Lord, Lord MacGregor, said. With an absolute requirement such as this, I cannot see that we will avoid that. It would be helpful if the Minister could explain, first, whether it is an absolute requirement or whether the requirement to act in good faith in Clause 156(1) conditions the requirements in Clause 156(3); and, secondly, if one has to have ““regard to”” all of these matters rather than taking them into account or including them, how does one deal with any competing issues that may arise under those obligations?