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Companies Act 2006 (Consequential Amendments and Transitional Provisions) Order 201

My Lords, before we approve the order, as we clearly should, we should look at what has happened since 2006. Noble Lords who lived through the various stages of the Companies Bill of that year, which was probably the longest Bill in the history of this House, will remember that we on these Benches argued from an early stage that it should be a consolidation Bill. Its first draft did not constitute a consolidation Bill but was a huge Bill with different clauses. The noble Lord, Lord Sainsbury of Turville, who was the relevant Labour Minister at the time, eventually came to us and said that he had won his argument internally and now thought that it should be a consolidation Bill. However, he asked whether, if he was prepared to concede that point to those of us who were arguing for it, we would agree that we would not go back for another 25 days in Committee going through, clause by clause, the consolidation procedures. I responded that I was certainly happy to give that undertaking provided there was not some obvious omission or howler in the process of consolidation. Looking at this order, I have to congratulate the drafters of that Bill because we require only these few, very minor, changes of things that were missed at the time of the Bill. I am glad that we had a consolidation Bill of that nature, although whether the Butterworths the publishers are so happy remains to be seen. I certainly support the order.