Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Con)

My Lords, first, I declare my interest as the author of company law textbooks and the occasional lecture on company law. I thank the Minister for setting out the intent of these regulations with notable clarity. I should say at the outset that I have no problem with these regulations except that, I would argue, they probably do not go far enough. Surely it is right and consistent with the intention of the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act that we enact these regulations. I wholly approve of the protection of the residential addresses of those people who may be the subject of fraud and identity theft; that seems very sensible. My questions to the Minister are twofold. In what limited circumstances will it be thought necessary to display the residential address, based on the points made by the Minister? Also, given that they are so few—if, indeed, there are any—should it not be the case that we simply do not show residential addresses? Based on the fact that Companies House will hold them anyway, the default position should therefore be that they are not shown, rather than that they are shown, and it should not depend on individuals applying through this process for them not to be shown. Natural inertia means that some people just will not do it. It seems to me that the reverse presumption would be sensible. I have just two further brief points. The first relates to how Companies House will publicise this procedure so that people are aware of it if we are to go down this route. Secondly, how long is the application procedure likely to take? In the meantime, the address will be there, and the potential for corporate fraud and identity theft will be present. With that, I am otherwise happy with these regulations.