I move amendment No. 79:
In page 53, subsection (2), line 36, to delete "3 days" and substitute "14 days".
Section 54 (2) states that there is "an obligation imposed by section 53 (2) to (4) (regarding the entry of information into the register) shall be fulfilled before the expiration of the period of three days beginning with the day next following that on which it arises". This concerns the obligation imposed on the company itself to incorporate information received by it about changes in shareholding in the register of interests which it has to keep under section 53. The requirement is that this obligation must be fulfilled by the company within three days of receiving the information. I realise that in normal circumstances, three days is more than sufficient time to transfer information that has been notified by letter into a register which is available for inspection under this subsection (8) but it is possible that if a company are going through a difficult time — perhaps they are in danger of losing a great deal of money or problems are arising — and if they are a very small company with maybe one or two employees, the company may have more than enough on their hands just to stay alive, without being able to do this job within three days. I acknowledge that it is not a huge job to transfer information being notified into a register, but it can be overlooked. That is why I suggest that the time limit should be 14 days rather than three days, remembering that the transaction itself must be notified within five days of it taking place and it must be incorporated in a register within three subsequent days. This means that the total time from the transaction to the incorporation in the register under the present legislation is a maximum of eight days, otherwise you break the law.
Given that in the case of companies to which section 190 (12) of the Principal Act applies, which are companies where all the shareholders are directors, this never had to be fulfilled, and, to require everything to be done within eight days to my mind may well be a bit onerous particularly for small companies. I have heard concern that we may be making too much legislation here that we will not be able to enforce and that it will be onerous. Therefore I suggest that 14 days instead of three days would give a little more time for compliance. I am suggesting this because it is an obligation that applies to every company and not just to cowboys.