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Companies Bill [HL]

My Lords, I support the noble Baroness in her amendments. I acknowledge that I have come to this Bill somewhat late in the day, having been introduced to your Lordships' House only in mid-June—later than expected, I have to say, because, apparently, audit reports on certain prospective Peers were rather less than unqualified. I must declare a number of interests, having been a chartered accountant for more than 40 years—albeit never in practice—having been on the boards of a number of public companies of various sizes and the chairman and member of a number of audit committees. In recent years as a private investor I have focused on the smaller established public companies and write a regular monthly column on my portfolio activities for the Financial Times. In preparation for this debate, I have looked back at the Hansards covering the passage of the Bill through both Houses and at the debates on the Freedom of Information Bill itself. In opening the first debate on the Freedom of Information Bill in December 1999, the then Home Secretary, Jack Straw, said: "““Moreover, the Bill will not only provide legal rights for the public and place legal duties on Ministers and public authorities, but will help to transform the culture of Government from one of secrecy to one of openness. It will transform the default setting from ‘this should be kept quiet unless’ to ‘this should be published unless’.—[Official Report, Commons, 7/12/99; col. 714.]" We contend that the Professional Oversight Board for Accountancy—an operating body of the Financial Reporting Council—is the equivalent of a public authority. Hence, its reports on accountancy firms should be made public unless there are very good reasons to the contrary. Having examined the record, I have not read any compelling reasons against the openness and disclosure that bringing the POBA within the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act would provide. We should be embracing ever-greater transparency. There is an assumption that the amendments are solely about the standards and procedures of the big four accountancy firms. Although it is obviously true that they dominate the auditing landscape, especially for the larger capped stocks, in the world in which I operate, many smaller capped stocks are audited by a range of professional firms—obviously including the big four, but embracing many others. My role on audit committees, especially in the beauty parade of accountancy firms to which the noble Baroness alluded, would be considerably enhanced by independent assessment of their procedures and operations that I could access. We therefore support the amendments.