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Community Interest Company (Amendment) Regulations 2009

I thank the Minister for explaining the regulations, which I do not believe are particularly controversial. However, perhaps I could ask a few questions. As set out in the Explanatory Memorandum, according to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills: ""To minimise the impact … on firms employing up to 20 people, the approach taken is to maintain a light touch regulatory framework for CICs"." Can the Minister kindly explain how the office of the regulator of community interest companies achieves that? Is it, for instance, subject to regulatory budgets and sunset clauses? How does it interact with the Better Regulation Executive? Secondly, how many people does the office of the regulator of community interest companies employ and how much does it cost to run each year? How is its performance assessed? Lastly—a relatively minor question—I believe that the order will remove the right of a community interest company chairman to cast a deciding vote in a boardroom ballot. There was an apparently valid reason for the chairman having a casting vote. Can the Minister, therefore, explain what happens if the board is split equally on an issue?