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Company Law Reform Bill [HL]

Before the Minister replies to my noble friend, I urge him to listen to her last remarks about the safe harbour requirements in the OFR. If we are to get anything other than anodyne—I think that that was the word used by the noble Lord, Lord Sharman—comments; if we are to get any colour, light and shade about the future prospects for a company into the OFR, a safe harbour provision is essential. Without that, people will just be too scared to take the risk. There will be nothing in it for them; there is only a downside, no upside. I very much hope that the Minister will focus his response to my noble friend on that aspect. I hope that the noble Lord, Lord Lea of Crondall, who seeks to develop the provision in certain ways, will also understand that it would be greatly in his interest and that of those who espouse his point of view to have a safe harbour provision so that people can make statements. We all know that we live in an incredibly uncertain world. We cannot ask people to make statements about what they intend to do in future or what may happen in future, given the state of uncertainty in the world, without some form of safe harbour giving protection not against being reckless but against making sensible statements that are reasonable when they are made. The noble Lord, Lord Lea, ought to support that approach. Even if we do not agree about every aspect, there is some common ground there that we could usefully develop.