---

Company Law Reform Bill [HL]

I shall deal with that last point first: it gives him the right to attend if he has been appointed before the meeting. Obviously, if he is appointed afterwards, that is a right which he cannot exercise. But there is no reason not to give him the right to do so if he is appointed before the meeting. To put the new requirements around the independent report on polls into context, this was a key recommendation of the Company Law Review, which had in mind the need to improve confidence in the integrity and effectiveness of the voting processes in quoted companies. The key issue is whether there is a problem. Yes, there has been a problem, although in time it may disappear. If investors lose confidence in the voting process—