Clause 772
Company Law Reform Bill [Lords]
6:00 pm
Jonathan Djanogly (Shadow Solicitor General (Also Shadow Minister for Trade and Industry), Law Officers (Assist the Home Affairs Team); Huntingdon, Conservative)
Will the Minister explain what aspects of the registrar service are being reviewed to be contracted out?
Vera Baird (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs; Redcar, Labour)
The clause largely restates subsections (7) and (8) of section 704 of the 1985 Act. The Deregulation and Contracting Out Act 1994 envisaged that some of the registrar’s functions might be contracted out. The clause provides for that possibility by saying that where a contractor is processing documents, the registrar may provide for them to be sent directly to the contractor. The 1994 Act does not permit the function of making subordinate legislation to be delegated, and subsection (3) of the clause provides that registrar’s rules are not regarded as subordinate legislation for that purpose, permitting the contractor to make rules about the form and manner of delivery, for example.