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Company Law Reform Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. A145:"Page 434, line 6, at end insert—" ““      A disclosure for the purpose of enabling or assisting an enforcement authority under the Financial Services (Distance Marketing) Regulations 2004 (S.I. 2004/2095) to exercise its functions under those Regulations.”” The noble and learned Lord said: In moving Amendment No. A145, I shall speak also to Amendments Nos. A146 and A147. My speaking notes say that this is a very simple amendment but, in the light of what has taken place, it may not be quite as simple as that. It is intended to extend the Takeover Panel’s powers to pass information under the disclosure gateways set out in Schedule 2, and it does that in two ways. First, it enables the Takeover Panel to pass information for the purposes of helping an enforcement authority under the Financial Services (Distance Marketing) Regulations 2004 to do its job. That closely mirrors the existing disclosure gateway at paragraph 43 of Schedule 2 in relation to enforcement authorities under the Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000. Secondly, it allows disclosure by the panel in connection with disciplinary proceedings against a foreign lawyer. Such a disclosure gateway already applies in relation to members of the domestic legal profession. Members of the Committee will be well aware that we now operate very much within an international takeover marketplace—perhaps not quite as international in some respects as we would want but that is another issue. Lawyers who advise bidders are frequently members of a legal profession from outside England and Wales. To ensure good conduct, we believe it is right that the panel should be able to forward to the relevant disciplinary bodies information concerning transgression of the UK takeover rules in which such lawyers are involved. If we can send information to the regulatory bodies applying to English and Welsh lawyers—the Law Society and the Bar Council—it is right that the Takeover Panel should be able to do the same in relation to foreign lawyers if they see information which shows that they have transgressed the rules. I beg to move.