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Company Law Reform Bill [HL]

My Lords, perhaps I may offer support to the amendment. In a Bill which produced more than 1,000 amendments at Committee stage and, extraordinarily, more than 500 on Report, there are just two or three on which I have been lobbied—this is one of them—from people who feel simply disenfranchised, for the reasons that have been given. The Bill and its explanatory documents speak of shareholder rights. I want to recast the argument of shareholder responsibilities. As we move into a more complex world, the importance in our democracy of emphasising the stakeholding character of democracy will become ever more important. The drift is certainly towards more shareholdings being held in nominee accounts for the reasons that have been given, which is likely to continue. It seems to be unhealthy in a shareholding, stakeholding democracy to have ever increasing numbers of shareholders effectively disenfranchised from the decision-making processes. It seems to be just a healthy statement of shareholder responsibility, along with shareholder rights, that this amendment should be supported.