Mr. Djanogly: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform whom his Department consulted before he decided to delay the implementation of certain provisions of the Companies Act 2006 to 1st October 2009; and how such consultation was conducted. [166764]
Mr. Timms: The Government's decision to delay final implementation of the Companies Act 2006 was taken in the light of advice from the Registrar of Companies that he can not be absolutely confident of implementing the necessary changes to Companies House systems and processes by October 2009. We did not carry out external consultation before making this announcement because this could not have affected the advice to Ministers from the Registrar of Companies. We are however consulting key stakeholders about the commencement date for provisions, such as those relating to the general duties of directors in respect of conflicts of interest, which do not necessitate changes to Companies House systems and processes.