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Company Law Reform Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. A237A: "Page 485, line 7, leave out ““not””" The noble Baroness said: Part 1 of Schedule 10 deals with the recognition of supervisory bodies, which are important because they produce the company’s auditors. The Minister has emphasised in Committee the public interest that there is in relation to auditors. The recognition of a body that has functions in relation to auditors is clearly important. For this important task, the Government have sought to make the process entirely independent of Parliament, as paragraph 5 states: "““Orders . . . shall not be made by statutory instrument””." So my amendment, by removing ““not””, would require the orders to be made by statutory instrument subject to parliamentary procedure. I do not suggest that any of the current supervisory bodies is inadequate, but it is possible that the Government would seek, for whatever reason, to recognise a supervisory body in circumstances that were controversial. That is why we believe that some parliamentary process is important. The Minister will be aware that I have not addressed in this probing amendment what that process should be. I beg to move.