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Company Law Reform Bill [HL]

My Lords, I congratulate the Government on rebranding a part of the Bill. To the average man in the street we now have the business review, formerly known as the OFR. I also congratulate the Government on having the balance about right. As the noble Baroness said, the issue with the OFR has always been how much was in it and the degree of certainty that there had to be over the information that was contained therein. This series of amendments gets the balance about right. It is a welcome addition and I support it. However, I have a couple of concerns. In introducing the amendments, the Minister said that there would be no reporting standard for the business review. I cannot believe that he honestly believes that. I think that it will just be a question of time before someone decides that we need a reporting standard for the business review; it is just the way that accounting goes, in my view. Having said that, I go back to my first remarks that the Government have got the balance about right, and I congratulate them on that.