Mr Jonathan Djanogly (Huntingdon, Conservative)

I beg to move amendment No. 229, in page 22, line 38, at end insert—

'(2A) In making or preparing any report under this section, the Commission shall not disclose any information of a confidential nature.'.

It must be appreciated that in a merger situation, particularly a non-contested one, in which both parties feel that the enlarged group would be of real benefit to them, the question of competition clearance—the possibility of a referral—would be the main risk factor that could delay and add a lot of additional costs to the transaction. I am certainly not saying that the requirement is wrong. However, if the companies' advisers were to tell them that there was a risk of referral, they may be put off the deal, because of the possibility not just that money will be wasted but that confidential information might enter the public arena, perhaps unnecessarily. Such non-public information would then be available to the companies' competitors. In the worst case, that could hinder the transaction or even put it off altogether, although the

merged companies may be much better together than standing alone. It is vital that information released by the Competition Commission in its report, or indeed elsewhere, should not include information that could be damaging.

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