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Companies Bill [Lords]

I will write because I do not want to mislead hon. Members, but my view would be that an individual who holds an office would be liable as that office holder. I see nods, so I might have got that right too. I come now to the amendments relating to the age of directors. I know that the Conservative party is desperate to grow its membership. It would be good if it desperately grew Back Benchers, who previously expressed such interest in the consideration of amendments to this Bill, but yet again only one has graced us with her presence. In Committee, the hon. Member for Huntingdon (Mr. Djanogly) seemed to think that it was generally a good idea to prohibit the appointment of young persons as directors, although I accept that he had concerns about transitional arrangements. He appears now to have slightly moved from that position. I still take the view—it is open to hon. Members to express their view—that it is wrong to have young people as directors. In the other place, their lordships wanted to change the minimum age to 18, not 16. The idea of bringing it down to 10 is extremely dangerous and could lead to huge exploitation by others who want to shelter behind a child director, relying on enforcement authorities’ unwillingness to prosecute very young people. It is interesting that in the data to which the hon. Gentleman referred, there are 200 young directors under the age of 10. This is a sensible measure. We will consider the transitional arrangements, and there will be consultation. If we make exceptions, they would apply to a company rather than an individual, so the young entrepreneurs whom the hon. Gentleman identified during his summer reading probably would not be covered, if I was honest with him, because they are individuals. If they have an idea, there are other ways in which they can pursue their business interest. The companies to which this might be relevant would be charities or community interest companies, which have a particular concern for young people. In such circumstances it might be appropriate to create an exception, but it would be dangerous to do that for individuals.