Clause 730
Company Law Reform Bill [Lords]
4:30 pm

Jonathan Djanogly (Shadow Solicitor General (Also Shadow Minister for Trade and Industry), Law Officers (Assist the Home Affairs Team); Huntingdon, Conservative)

I beg to move amendment No. 380, in clause 730, page 361, leave out line 23.

Eric Illsley (Barnsley Central, Labour)

With this it will be convenient to discuss amendment No. 389, in clause 751, page 372, leave out line 41.

Jonathan Djanogly (Shadow Solicitor General (Also Shadow Minister for Trade and Industry), Law Officers (Assist the Home Affairs Team); Huntingdon, Conservative)

The clause, which deals with the public notice of receipt of certain documents, replaces section 711 of the Companies Act 1985. I appreciate that some issues require publication, which is also provided for in subsection (1)(b), but may I probe the Minister and ask, further to the discussion that we had on this earlier today, why in the electronic age people should still have to publish in the Gazette?

There is a cost to Companies House and to the company in placing an advertisement, but it is unnecessary red tape, particularly as there could be a central website on which all such notices were published at what I expect would be a much lower cost.

I would like to know who reads the Gazette. Not many people, I imagine. In reality, it puts the public on notice only technically. Publishing an advertisement in the Gazette is not like publishing one in the Sundays.

On amendment No. 389, the Bill again requires in clause 751 that notice be given in the Gazette. Is that not expensive and does it not go unnoticed? Can we not move on to cheaper, more practical notice provisions? It would help to have an idea of the costs involved. The amendments are probing and aim to discover from the Minister how much Companies House and companies spend per year on advertising in the Gazette.

Vera Baird (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs; Redcar, Labour)

Just so that I do not appear the slightest bit churlish, let me welcome the third and fourth Opposition Members to the Committee. We have nine Members on our side, but perhaps this running commentary ought to cease soon.

The cost of the Gazette is some £80,000 per annum. It lists well over 1 million transactions, or entries, and is a permanent record that libraries keep. I know that the hon. Gentleman in fact likes the Gazette. As was said earlier, there is no reason to do away with it. The registrar must give appropriate publicity on incorporation, and it is published in the London Gazette, Edinburgh Gazette or Belfast Gazette, depending on where the company is. The Gazette is well known and of long standing, and users are accustomed to referring to it for news of incorporations. Even I know that one can look in it.

There is no intention that the registrar will cease to publish in that way in the near future. It is possible that developments in electronic publishing over time will mean that alternative mechanisms become equally or more appropriate. As the hon. Gentleman knows, clause 769 makes such alternatives available.

Does anyone use the Gazette? I cannot tell the hon. Gentleman what the readership is and I do not know how we can pin it down. We would have to find out how many copies are purchased and then how many people, on average, read each issue. That is the sort of thing that one gets only from Bradshaw, so I do not know whether we can help further.

The point is that a lot of the existing obligations to give notice in the Gazette come from European Community law, and the facility to provide alternative means has been made available only recently. It is not  clear to what extent our partners in other member states would be aware if we ceased to publish in that tried and tested way, so in due course we will look at alternatives. However, there is currently no intention of discontinuing publication in that way.

Nick Palmer (PPS (Malcolm Wicks, Minister of State), Department of Trade and Industry; Broxtowe, Labour)

May I briefly indicate some sympathy with the Opposition on this point? In this day and age, it seems appropriate to move to electronic publication for easier access and reduced cost. I would not go as far as to vote for the amendment, and I do not think that the Opposition will press it anyway, but I want to flag that point up.

Jonathan Djanogly (Shadow Solicitor General (Also Shadow Minister for Trade and Industry), Law Officers (Assist the Home Affairs Team); Huntingdon, Conservative)

It seems that the Gazette is going to get a reprieve this afternoon.

In this day and age, there must be a better alternative to what is in most practitioners’ minds a bore, to be frank. I shall leave my comments there, but I hope that the Government will perhaps put their mind to how that could be changed. I appreciate that the Bill provides for changes to be made in the use of the Gazette, if necessary. I beg to ask leave to withdraw the amendment.