Clause 3 - Sections 1 and 2: supplemental
Horserace Betting and Olympic Lottery Bill
10:15 am
Mr James Paice (South East Cambridgeshire, Conservative)
I am grateful for the Minister's response. Before perhaps complying with his request, I want to press him a little further. We agree that when the successor company has been sold to the shadow racing trust, none of us wants to tie the trust's hands and it must appoint its own directors as appropriate. However, there will be a period between the Tote ceasing to have its current status, when the successor company takes over its assets and so on, and that successor company being sold on. It might be five minutes, or the time it takes to sign the documents, but it might be considerably longer if matters go adrift.
All I am seeking from the Minister is an assurance that the directors of the successor company, which will, by its nature, be a different company—that is what the clause is all about and the Government are appointing the successor company—will be the same as the existing directors of the Tote until the point of sale to the racing trust.