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Companies Bill [HL]

My Lords, I beg to move that the House do agree with the Commons in their Amendments Nos. 255 to 257. I shall speak also to Amendments Nos. 260, 262, 273, 283, 284, 286 to 288, 292, 296 to 301, 916, 935 and 1017. The first 19 of these amendments remove from the Bill the special rules on the audit of companies that are charities. The final two make similar changes to the Companies Act 1985. In future, the rules on the audit of charities will all be contained in charity law, whether the charity is a company or not. The Charities Bill was amended in another place on Wednesday evening to achieve the same result. We are making these changes to complete changes to the Bill begun during our debates on Report in May, on the basis of amendments put forward by the noble Lord, Lord Hodgson. The result will be to complete the process that those amendments started of simplifying the law on scrutiny of the accounts of small charitable companies. These changes will reduce the complexity of this part of company law and also make the rules on audit easier to understand for small charities. The Office of the Third Sector carried out an informal consultation, which showed widespread support for the simplification. The changes to the existing Act will enable us to give effect to the simplification early next year, in co-ordination with changes to charity law. I hope the noble Lord will acknowledge that these are not only fine words but a veritable feast of buttered parsnips. Moved, That the House do agree with the Commons in their Amendments Nos. 255 to 257.—(Lord McKenzie of Luton.)