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Companies Bill [Lords]

I agree with almost all that the right hon. Gentleman says. I would not put contributions by individuals to political parties on the same level as contributions by individuals to charities, but the continuation of healthy political parties is an essential feature of the democratic expression of the political views of all in our community. On the whole, therefore, I agree with the thrust of his remarks. Our new clause will prevent companies from circumventing the controls of the Bill. If they wish to donate to the political fund of a trade union, they must seek shareholder authorisation. If they donate to trade union funding in another ways—such as providing free meeting room facilities—they will not need to seek authorisation. In the latter case, there is no danger of such funds being redirected to political parties, because the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 prevents trade unions from making payments to political parties, except through their political fund. That Act also prohibits trade unions from redirecting money received from third parties into the political fund unless the money is given as a contribution to the political fund. I want to underline the fact that we are not aware of any companies making such donations to trade unions as a means of circumventing the requirements applicable to political donations in this way. However, I have taken on board the request of both Opposition parties that we should make that clear in the Bill to ensure that it is not a possibility in the future. New clauses 81 and 82 and amendments Nos. 708 to 710 address an issue that was raised by the hon. Member for Huntingdon (Mr. Djanogly) in Committee. Under clause 376, the directors of a subsidiary company and the directors of its ““relevant holding company”” may be liable if an unauthorised donation is made by a subsidiary. Clause 377 recognises the possibility that neither the holding company nor the subsidiary may bring an action against the directors who are liable in respect of the unauthorised donation. It therefore allows shareholders to bring legal proceedings to enforce that liability. In such cases, we agree that shareholders of both the subsidiary and the holding company should be able to bring those proceedings. That is particularly important if the directors of the holding company are effectively the shareholders of the subsidiary—for example, if it were a wholly owned subsidiary. As drafted, the clause would allow only shareholders of the subsidiary to bring proceedings, even against directors of the holding company. As I have explained, we do not think that that would work in practice, and these amendments address the problem by giving the right to bring proceedings to shareholders of the subsidiary and shareholders of the holding company. That will ensure that the directors of the holding company can be held to account by their shareholders if they use subsidiaries that they control to make unauthorised donations. I wonder whether you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, might advise me on the rest of my contribution, which is about resisting other proposals in the group. Should I deal with those now or wait for them to be spoken to and come back?