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Company Law Bill [HL]

Before the noble Lord withdraws the amendment, perhaps I may make a couple of points. Amendments Nos. A101 and A102 would potentially allow companies ““going paperless”” on their own initiative to do so without the authority of a majority of their members. We do not think that that is appropriate. If there is no legislative ““big bang””, it should be the members of each company who decide whether to abandon altogether the possibility of paper-based holding and transfer of securities in that company. We are, of course, aware that special arrangements may have to be made for particular classes of share and even that sometimes a share may need to be exempted from the new regime by whatever means it is introduced. That is why we tabled Amendments Nos. A108 and A110 to A112. I simply invite the noble Lord to withdraw his amendment, bearing in mind our policy on the subject of members.