---

Finance Bill

That is fine, but there is already an obligation on directors to maintain proper books of records. They already have to sign off the accounts. If there was no responsibility anywhere in the business for signing off the books and records or for signing off the accounts, that would be a valid point. That is probably why it is in the Companies Act already. But we are going beyond the existing requirements, to create a new obligation on senior accounting officers, and I query the need for that move, given all the checks and balances that are in place already through the directors' statutory duties, the audit and the work that HMRC is doing with large corporates on risk management. What is the rationale for going that much further, given all the existing legal responsibilities?