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Company Law Reform Bill [HL]

My Lords, as on the previous amendment, my noble friend Lord Sharman supported the Opposition on this point throughout the deliberations in the Moses Room and on Report. We certainly do not intend to renege on that support today. The fundamental point which my noble friend would have made had he been able to be here was made by the noble Lord, Lord Hodgson. There is now extensive development of a voluntary code, which, as the noble Lord, Lord Hodgson, said, if we have to wait for regulations to come in from the Government, is likely to be frozen. As a result, this is an unnecessary regulatory step too far. This is the one that can be confined to the bonfire of regulations which the Government have so often promised but have so often failed to deliver.