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Companies Bill [HL]

My Lords, before we go on to the substance of the amendments, perhaps I may follow the remarks of the noble Lord, Lord Hodgson. While listening to him I was struck by the phrase, ““Methinks he protests too much””. From his speech one would have assumed that we were going to be faced with 100 amendments from the Conservative Benches stating the reasons against the government amendments made in another place. I shall deal with the one matter of specific detail he referred to, which is Amendment No. 245. I had assumed from his remarks that the Conservative Party would have put down an amendment to Amendment No. 245 indicating that it did not wish that particular clause to be carried, but it has not done so. A quite specific amendment has been tabled and we will support it. But, having listened to the words of the noble Lord on it, I assume that the Tory party will simply oppose the government amendment when it comes to a vote. That issue was an extremely difficult one, of course, and if the Government are not to be congratulated on putting it in at a late stage, they are to be congratulated on having dealt with an issue dear to the hearts of many of the NGOs which have extensively lobbied all political parties and the Government. A satisfactory compromise subject to the various amendments we are going to discuss will have been arrived at. However, in the light of the speech of the noble Lord, Lord Hodgson, I look forward to the Tory party presumably opposing the introduction of Amendment No. 245. I shall make one general point in the presence of the right reverend Prelate: there is nothing better than a sinner who repenteth. One of the reasons why we have such a large number of amendments today is that the Government eventually did repent on the views we expressed at Second Reading that this should be a consolidation Bill. I think it was slightly churlish of the noble Lord, Lord Hodgson, not to thank the Minister for having forced that requirement through his colleagues, albeit at a very late stage.