Clause 3 - Sections 1 and 2: supplemental
Horserace Betting and Olympic Lottery Bill
10:15 am
Mr James Paice (South East Cambridgeshire, Conservative)
I beg to move amendment No. 1, in
clause 3, page 2, line 39, at end insert—
'(6A) The Secretary of State shall ensure that the directors of the successor company following the vesting of the property, rights and
liabilities of the Board on the appointed day are the same people as were members of the Board before the appointed day, save to the extent that any individual member has not given his consent to being appointed as a director of the successor company.'.
This is a technical amendment, but it is important. The Tote proposed it, and it is about the status of its directors. As the Minister has confirmed, the Government intend to create a successor company and, in almost the same breath, to sell it to the racing trust. However, the legislative basis for a continuity of directors is missing. I am not suggesting that there is any malign intent on behalf of the Government suddenly to get rid of the existing directors and to appoint a new lot for the five minutes of the successor company under Government ownership. However, it is important to clarify that the existing directors should become directors of the successor company unless they individually choose not to be.
Once the Tote is sold to the racing trust, as we hope it will be, that trust should decide whether a change of directors is necessary. As with any company, the owners should decide who are the directors. I am simply trying to clarify the situation for the successor company that exists in the period between the current Tote and it becoming wholly owned by the racing trust.
The amendment is important for the purposes of continuity. We always have to consider the unlikely event, and on Second Reading in response to an intervention from the right hon. Member for Livingston (Mr. Cook), the Minister referred to the possibility that something could go wrong and that the sale to the racing trust might not happen.
We need a belt-and-braces approach. We all hope that there will be no problem, but it is conceivable that, having taken the Tote into state ownership, something may go wrong. In that event, the Government would be stuck with ownership for longer than is currently envisaged. I seek only to ensure that the current directors of the board remain until the Tote is taken over by the racing trust or whomever.