Clause 40

Section 204 of the Companies Act is amended by deleting subsection (2) and substituting the following subsection:“(2) In any proceedings against a person for failure to take all reasonable steps to comply with, or to secure compliance with, the preceding provisions of this Division relating to the form and content of the accounts of a company or consolidated accounts of a holding company by reason of an omission from the accounts or consolidated accounts, it is a defence to prove that the omission was not intentional and that the information omitted was immaterial and did not affect the giving of a true and fair view of the matters required by section 201 to be dealt with in the accounts or consolidated accounts, as the case may be.”.