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Company Law Reform Bill [HL]

I do not want to prolong this debate and it may be that some aspects can sensibly be discussed outside Grand Committee. My noble friend touches on a number of different areas: to what extent do we treat the profits or revenue from a group as being capable of being identified in a single way; to what extent do we require groups to have certain responsibilities in relation to what their subsidiaries do; and to what extent do we require subsidiaries to have regard to their own interests, which may differ from those of the parent company, in deciding what should be done? Those are big topics and I do not believe that sweeping away the distinction between one company and another in the way that his amendment would do is the right way to approach important issues, such as globalisation, which my noble friend has raised.