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Company Law Reform Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. A147B:"Page 303, line 15, at end insert ““, or" (   )   failed to comply with rules about documentation by virtue of section 628”” The noble Lord said: This group of amendments all work around the same point—that is, the penalties for failure to comply with bid documentation. In moving Amendment No. A147B, I shall also speak to Amendments Nos. A149A, A150A, A151A, A151B, A151C and A151D, which relate to Clause 627 on ““Sanctions”” and Clause 628 on ““Failure to comply with rules about bid documentation””. The amendments deal with the proposed offence created by Clause 628. We have received a number of representations that this should not be a criminal offence. We understand that there is no compulsion on the Government as a consequence of the directive to make this a criminal offence. The argument is that the attempt by the Government to do so is unnecessary and the case for doing so has not so far been sufficiently made out. We are therefore inclined to oppose the criminalisation of the failures contemplated by Clause 628, and we argue that this piece of gold-plating should go. The panel has a range of sanctions that it can impose for breaches. The first amendment in this group would add a failure to comply with rules about bid documentation into the remit of the Takeover Panel and allow it to deal with it as it sees fit. That would prevent the unnecessary consequence that the Bill, as currently drafted, could lead to, of the case being taken out of the panel’s hands and being dealt with by unconnected prosecuting authorities. The remaining amendments in this group change a failure, as contemplated by Clause 628, into a breach rather than a criminal offence. I beg to move.