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Company Law Reform Bill [Lords]

I think that I acknowledged the fact that the secretary of a company performs an extremely useful function in many companies. The point of the legislation is to remove the requirement for private companies to have a secretary—although they may still choose to have one. Certainly they will probably want to designate somebody to authorise signatories. If the hon. Gentleman or I were dealing with a company, we would want to be sure that whoever was entering into an agreement with us had that company’s authority to do so. Those safeguards exist in the Bill—but I am sure that he will return to the matter if he catches your eye, Mr. Speaker, and that he will return to it in Committee if he catches his Whip’s eye. We look forward to hearing what he has to say.