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Corporate Insolvency and Governance Bill

My Lords, I thank my noble friend Lady Fookes and the noble Baroness, Lady Taylor, for the amendments which they have tabled, and I am grateful to all noble Lords who have spoken in this short debate. I will say at the outset that I understand and take on board the concerns expressed by the noble Baroness, Lady Taylor, and the noble Lord, Lord Stevenson, on the use of emergency legislation and the risk that amendments to such Bills will be necessary.

I can assure the House that the Government do our very best to draft legislation accurately and fully before bringing a Bill before the House. However, I feel sure

that noble Lords will understand that there will always be a risk of amendments being required to the Bill as it progresses through Parliament, even with the best will in the world. To the extent that the Government have listened to concerns expressed during the course of the Bill, I am sure that noble Lords would not wish to criticise amendments that have come forward in response to such concerns.

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Amendment 48 raises the matter of accountability for the Secretary of State when the power under Clause 18 is used. First, noble Lords will be aware that any use of this power would be through regulations subject to the “made affirmative” procedure, which means that they must be debated and approved by both Houses. The temporary amendments will last for a maximum of six months, with further debate if they are to last longer than that. As my noble friend Lady Fookes reminded us, the Secretary of State has a continuing duty to review any temporary amendments made using the power. But I suggest to her that a further report every three months would be likely to replicate information being provided to Parliament through other processes.

The Minister’s duty is a legal duty. That is not in any way a licence to keep matters conveniently out of the in-tray, so to speak. Having been a Minister myself, I know that officials simply do not allow a Minister to do that. All these temporary measures will, inevitably, be subject to constant attention, both in Parliament and outside, so I would strongly argue that the amendment is unnecessary. As I made clear earlier, amendments have been tabled by the Government to restrict the use of the power in Clause 18, so it can be exercised only if the need for the provision made by the regulations is urgent.

Amendment 50 provides for a sunset provision for the general power in Clause 18. As things stand, the power may not be used after 30 April 2021, but this expiry date may be extended. This would be for a period of no more than a year, although there is no limit to the number of times that the power to extend may be used. Amendment 50 would limit the power to extend the sunset date to one use only, which would mean that the very latest the power in Clause 18 could be used would be 30 April 2022. I do recognise the concern that this House has about the potential for the expiry date to be extended indefinitely. That is why the Government have taken the step of tabling an amendment which would mean that the absolute latest date that the power will expire will be two years after the Bill is given Royal Assent.

I hope that these government amendments, individually and collectively, will provide noble Lords with sufficient reassurance that the power will be used for proper and proportionate purposes and for an appropriately limited time. By the same token, I hope that I will have satisfied my noble friend and the noble Baroness, Lady Taylor, enough to enable them to feel comfortable in not moving their amendments when they are called.

Before I sit down, I would like to make a few points in response to the noble Baroness, Lady Barker, and the noble Lord, Lord Fox, about charities and, in particular, museums. As they know, the measures in

the Bill will apply to all charities that are structured as a company; there are over 30,000 of those. In addition, the Bill will apply certain measures to charities that are structured as charitable incorporated organisations; there are over 20,000 of those.

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and the Charity Commission have been closely involved in discussions on both the Bill’s permanent measures and temporary emergency measures and on how they can be extended to incorporated charities. Most of those discussions have been in the context of preparing this emergency legislation to respond to the Covid-19 pandemic. In the limited time available, it was considered proportionate to focus efforts to extend the Bill’s provisions to the largest group of incorporated charities that would require specific provision in the legislation—namely charitable incorporated organisations, of which there are over 22,000 in England and Wales and 4,500 in Scotland.

We do recognise that museums are facing exceptional challenges because of Covid-19, and I can tell the noble Baroness and the noble Lord that we are actively exploring a range of ways to support them at this time. Unfortunately, I cannot be more specific than that, but I hope that they can be reassured to the extent that this is not a matter that will be spoken about today and then conveniently put aside. This is active work in progress and we fully recognise the concerns that have been raised about museum collections.

My noble friend Lord Balfe raised the use of the powers in Clause 18. Perhaps I can give him some further and better particulars on that. Temporary amendments to relevant legislation may be made by statutory instrument using the “made affirmative” procedure, as I mentioned, and so will be subject to debate and approval in both Houses. As I also mentioned, those amendments may last for a maximum of six months, after which they may be extended if they are still needed; again, that would be by statutory instrument using the “made affirmative” procedure, so there would be a further debate and the approval of both Houses would be needed. As my noble friend Lady Fookes drew attention to, there is a continuing requirement on the Secretary of State to keep temporary amendments under review, to revoke them if they are no longer needed or amend them as appropriate, so the parliamentary scrutiny applied to this part of the Bill is very real. I hope that my noble friend is reassured by that.

I hope that I have said enough to enable my noble friend Lady Fookes not to move her amendment when we come to it. In the meantime, I beg to move Amendment 3.