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Company Law Reform Bill [HL]

My views on the OFR are well known; I am a great supporter of it. It is the one thing that has moved non-financial reporting for major companies forward. It has been embraced by best-practice companies. I am a little uncertain. I would prefer it to develop under a non-statutory regime, but I fear that without statutory backing, it will not mop up the companies that we really want to get in there. I hope that the Government, when they receive the results of their consultation, will think seriously before deciding that they want to remove the requirements of the OFR. I also underscore what the noble Lord, Lord Hodgson, said, about safe harbour. If we have the OFR on a statutory basis, we definitely need a safe harbour.