Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Bill
Debate between Lord Naseby and Baroness Neville-Rolfe
Baroness Neville-Rolfe
My Lords, the point I was making about reporting is that we would extend the annual report, in any event, so that it covered this new function, which is sensible, and in that context we would obviously look at data and other relevant issues.
The noble Lord asked about the scale of staffing required. I may be able to give him a response if I can make a bit of progress. My normal port of call would be the compliance cost assessment. The answer is that we are going to do this within the existing budget but in co-operation with other enforcement agencies. I have been to see Companies House during the course of swotting up for the Bill and I am impressed by it. It is bringing a more modern approach to the way in which it does things. It has been aware for some time that it is going to be given this new burden and it is ready and willing to pursue it.
Lord Naseby
As I understand my noble friend’s argument, she is saying that her department and other departments are in a similar mode. Their staff will cope with these changes and this huge register at nil cost other than what is already budgeted for the implementation of this Bill. Is that correct?
Baroness Neville-Rolfe
My Lords, agencies such as Companies House have long-term plans to look at the duties coming down the line which they will have to fulfil. They have been aware for some time that this duty will fall on them. Obviously it follows the Prime Minister’s initiative at Lough Erne in 2013 and the money-laundering directive discussions that have been going on in Brussels for a long time. We will be bringing in this register. I will pass on the points that have been made to Companies House but it is ready to tackle this task. Of course, the reason the compliance costs are large is because it is a small amount of work by a large number of companies. It is because the multiplier is so big that you get the compliance costs that you do. That might be of some comfort to my noble friend.
The issue of timing was raised by the noble Lord, Lord Phillips. We intend to require companies to maintain their own PSC registers from January 2016 and to file information at Companies House from April 2016. We publicly set out these intentions in January this year.
On complexity, it will be straightforward for the majority of companies to identify their PSCs. We are thinking carefully about the guidance and communications to companies so that we can get the message across about how they might do it simply and what is required. We have a working group set up to develop guidance which contains representatives from all interested parties including, everyone will be pleased to hear, small business. Our enforcement user group is co-chaired with the National Crime Agency and will look specifically at how to make best use of the PSC data so that, in making this big change, we are using it to good effect and that the benefits I have described come through.
I have set out these points at some length. I hope noble Lords have been reassured by what I have said about the forward plans for the register and its review and will be willing not to press their amendments.
Baroness Neville-Rolfe
My Lords, on the face of it, the first part of the noble Lord’s presumption is correct, but I think that I will take the time to reflect on it further and write to him, because I certainly would not want to mislead the House on such an important point. There are safeguards, but it is also a public register.
I should perhaps answer the question asked by my noble friend Lord Borwick, about the number of threats that individuals receive in the context of the review. I hope that it will reassure him when I say that I intend to look widely at those issues, as I have already said. As he probably knows, threat levels are not directly within my department’s remit, but I certainly intend that the review should consider the impact and efficacy of the protection regime as a whole.
I hope that, in view of the various reassurances that I have given, my noble friend Lord Flight will feel able to withdraw his amendment.
Lord Naseby
My Lords, before my noble friend sits down, will she clarify the point about the impending EU law? What happens if it goes through in, say, nine months, six months or 12 months? It is presumably the intention of Her Majesty’s Government to sign the law and then, if necessary, amend the Bill. Or will they wait another two years, or two and one-quarter years, and then amend it? If we are to sign up in Brussels to a law, it ought to be the law that applies in the United Kingdom, not one that is half Europe and half something else.
Baroness Neville-Rolfe
My Lords, we hope that the directive will be agreed in Brussels in the next few months. It is a directive, so there will be a two-year commencement, as normal. In the mean time we will bring in—and, I hope, road test and make a great success of—the register that we plan. If the detail of the directive requires some change either to the Bill—or, more likely, I suspect, from my experience of European directives, to regulations made under Section 122—that will be laid before the House in the usual way. I take comfort from the fact that that important bit of transparency legislation is going through in Brussels, and one would hope to see it on the statute book as soon as possible. That is the situation.
Companies Act 2006: Nominee Operators
Debate between Lord Naseby and Baroness Neville-Rolfe
Lord Naseby (Con)
My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question standing in my name on the Order Paper and, in doing so, declare an interest as a holder of some AIM shares.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (Baroness Neville-Rolfe) (Con)
My Lords, the Government are committed to encouraging better engagement between investors and companies. Indirect investors should be able to receive information from the companies in which they hold shares, if they choose to do so. We acknowledge that private investors in nominee accounts do not automatically receive such information, so we have recently commissioned research to determine how shares are currently held and what steps we might take to encourage more investor participation.
Lord Naseby
My noble friend’s Answer is encouraging, in that this research is being undertaken, but is she aware that the United Kingdom has the largest number of private investors anywhere in the world? Furthermore, thanks to the policy of my honourable friend in another place, those private investors can invest in AIM shares within their ISAs, which are one of the principal saving mechanisms of any family today. Against that background it is surely important that this research is done quickly, so that the holders of all shares can attend AGMs and receive the annual accounts.
Baroness Neville-Rolfe
My noble friend is entirely right. We expect the findings of our research by the end of March and we will therefore be able to proceed with appropriate steps quickly.