---

Company Law Reform Bill [HL]

My point is that at the moment, the Takeover Panel will be subject to the general law, and that it does not disclose information unless it is in the public interest, which would arise in relation to criminal activity and other relatively narrowly defined cases. If the Government wish to provide for confidential information to be capable of being passed outside the Takeover Panel, they need to make the case. I do not believe it is a self-evident truth that whenever dealing with any kind of confidential information, the Government may legislate for as many gateways for that information to have run around as possible. The whole purpose of information held confidentially is that we should be very clear about the restricted circumstances in which information is passed through gateways. They are not the natural state of affairs but are specifically justified. My point was that I had not heard one word of justification for specific gateways being created for the Takeover Panel.