Part of Enterprise Bill – in a Public Bill Committee am 6:45 pm ar 23 Ebrill 2002.
John Pugh
Democratiaid Rhyddfrydol, Southport
6:45,
23 Ebrill 2002
I would like some clarification from the Minister. I have read the clauses carefully, and the comments made by the hon. Member for Cities of London and Westminster are not quite right. Presumably, two conditions must be met before somebody can be disqualified. First, they must be a director of a company that has committed a breach of competition law, and secondly, the court has to judge them to be unfit.
There may be some directors of companies that have committed breaches of competition law who will be left alone and not disqualified, because the court regards them as fit to run a company. That is fine,
except that it creates the anomaly that a director of a company that has breached competition law can be disqualified whether or not they are personally responsible for that breach, so long as the second condition is met and they are judged unfit. In other words, the director's personal liability is not the issue. The conditions that must be satisfied are that his company has committed a breach and that he is unfit—perhaps on grounds that have nothing to do with his involvement in the breach of competition law.
A parliamentary bill is divided into sections called clauses.
Printed in the margin next to each clause is a brief explanatory `side-note' giving details of what the effect of the clause will be.
During the committee stage of a bill, MPs examine these clauses in detail and may introduce new clauses of their own or table amendments to the existing clauses.
When a bill becomes an Act of Parliament, clauses become known as sections.
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