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Company Law Bill [HL]

I rise to oppose the question that Clause 571 stand part of the Bill and to speak to Amendment No. A83, which—as was the case for the Minister—is a replacement clause. It is a probing amendment—on an issue raised with us, again, by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales—to ascertain the reasons for the retention of Sections 171 to 177 in the Companies Act 1985. The Government confirmed in the White Paper that the introduction of the new capital reduction mechanism—Clause 562—would render these rules redundant and that this Bill would repeal them. The above amendment would therefore replace Clause 571, which purported to amend Section 173 of the 1985 Act, and the old mechanism from that Act.