Companies: Online AGMs

Lord Leigh of Hurley Excerpts

Monday 23rd March 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Lloyd of Effra (Lab)]

As the noble Lord mentioned, getting the right regulation and reducing the administrative costs is a priority for the Government and in many areas we have already taken action to do that; for example, we no longer require certain companies to produce a strategic report. We will continue to work through the sectors and across all companies on reducing those administrative costs.

[Lord Leigh of Hurley (Con)]

To get back to the Question from the noble Lord, Lord Lee, who speaks as an investor, I speak as chairman of a public company and a senior partner of Cavendish plc. We welcome shareholders coming to our AGM. It is quite true that there are some shareholders who go from AGM to AGM with plastic bags, hoovering up the biscuits, but others have very valid points to make. I have been to the AGM of a company with which I disagreed vehemently on the action the directors were taking, and I was able to get my view across. If that meeting had been virtual, I would have been shut down by the PR.

[Baroness Lloyd of Effra (Lab)]

As I mentioned earlier, we are not mandating virtual AGMs and there will be nothing to stop companies continuing to hold hybrid AGMs. Through this consultation we are clarifying the legal grey area and providing certainty about the legitimacy of hybrid AGMs where certain shareholder safeguards are in place.