---

Company Law Reform Bill [HL]

When the noble and learned Lord comes to reply, will he particularly address the issue of wrongful trading under the Insolvency Act for people who are involved in dealing with small companies, venture capital, private equity and so on? By their very nature, these companies are vulnerable because they are small and the issue of wrongful trading greatly concerns directors because of the very severe penalties attached to allowing it to happen. I have no problem with that, but it would be very helpful to learn whether the Government believe the high-jump bar has been raised slightly or whether the position remains as it was before. It would be of considerable concern to those sections of the community dealing with smaller companies if the latter were the case.