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Company Law Reform Bill [HL]

That is a handsome offer so early in the afternoon from the Minister, for which I am extremely grateful. As he said, these are very narrow powers. He is right to say that people rely on the records at Companies House and that therefore we have to be careful about them. But if we allow fraudulent or inaccurate records to stay there, people will rely on those as well. So that bites both ways. The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales feels that if there was a system whereby you had an affidavit—information had to be sworn—there would therefore be a safeguard which could be enforced if the information proved to be inaccurate, or there could be a requirement for Companies House to check with people that there is not a dispute about information being removed. That would simplify and hurry everything up. Finally, we are not asking for the power to be in the Bill; we are asking for powers for regulations to be created subsequently. Therefore there will be time to work this out with the interested parties. However, I am grateful to the Minister and I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn. Clause 706 [Rectification of the register under court order]: