Private Business for Thursday 23 January 2003

House of Commons

Session 2002 - 03
Publications on the internet
Private Business

Private Business in the House of Commons

Here you can browse the House of Commons Private Business Order Paper for Thursday 23 January 2003.

NOTICES RELATING TO PRIVATE BUSINESS DEPOSITED ON
Wednesday 22 January 2003

Ministerial Report

under SO169A (Reports concerning human rights)

Transas Group Bill

Miss Melanie Johnson, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Competition, Consumers and Markets, Department for Trade and Industry, has made the following report:

'I believe that the promoters of the Transas Group Bill have undertaken a full assessment of the compatibility of their proposals with the European Convention on Human Rights, and I see no need to dispute their conclusions, subject to the points below.

Their conclusions rely on assumptions on two matters that lie outside the Bill, and which I am therefore unable to verify. First, it is assumed that the extinction of the UK companies combined by acts of the boards of the companies and the company secretary of Transas Limited will effect the transfer of the business (including both assets and liabilities) to Transas Limited in Ireland. Second, it is assumed, on the basis of advice given by the companies' Irish lawyers, that all creditors' rights presently enforceable against the companies in the UK will be equally enforceable in Ireland. I note, therefore, that the Bill, while not itself infringing the rights of creditors of the companies, could result in the infringement of those rights if other conditions not controlled by the provisions of the Bill are not met. It may prove to be the case, therefore, that creditors' rights are less protected than they would be should the UK companies effect the transfer of assets through a more conventional route or through a winding-up procedure.'.