Limited Liability Partnerships (Application of Companies Act 2006) Regulations 2009

I am grateful to the Minister. The Explanatory Memorandum says that this instrument and the application of the accounts and audit provisions of the 2006 Act to LLPs will be, ""reviewed, from 2011, as part of the Companies Act 2006 evaluation"." I notice that the other Explanatory Memorandums for the orders that we are discussing today all say something similar. What does "from 2011" mean? It sounds like, "not before 2011", which is rather worrying. Does it mean, on the other hand, "in 2011"? If not, when will we know the outcome of the review? Other noble Lords may have received a communication regarding these regulations from the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, an institute of which, I should disclose, I am a member. While most of its concerns with earlier drafts appear to have been allayed, it raised the following points. Perhaps the Minister could address them. The first concerns Regulation 18, which would apply Sections 162 to 165 of the 2006 Act, which concern the registry of directors’ names to LLPs with modifications. That will require an LLP to keep available for inspection a register of members containing certain particulars, including a service address for each individual member and whether a member is a designated member. In practice, the institute notes that most LLPs currently maintain a list of all members at their principal place of business and do not object to the requirement being imposed. However, particularly given that failure to comply will be an offence, it feels—and I can see the point—that it is important that the Minister’s department provides LLPs with adequate information about that new requirement to ensure compliance as from 1 October. The institute also notes that the department has postponed the decision on whether to apply the overseas company disclosure regime to LLPs. It understands that it would be undesirable to hold up the application of the remainder of the Act to LLPs while the difficult question of overseas LLPs is considered, but it would like to know when the issue will be tackled, as there is now a discrepancy between the treatment of overseas companies, as against overseas LLPs. Lastly, as a drafting point, the institute draws attention to the fact that in Regulation 51 applying Section 1007(1) and 1007(5)(a), reference is made to an application being made by an LLP. It says that that should refer to an application being made on behalf of an LLP. I should be interested to hear whether the Minister can respond to those points.