Mr. Chris Gordon:

Yes, companies limited by guarantee or share capital, as provided for in the companies Bill as drafted, who use the title "co-operative". I am also seeking protection of the word "co-operative". It is important that those that are co-operatives are regulated as such. It should not be possible for any group to simply declare itself a co-operative. There must be a process by which a co-operative can be such, in particular if the social business initiative to be introduced in 2014 is to going to mandate against that.

On Deputy Kyne's question regarding CICs, there are currently 8,000 social enterprises in the UK using the CIC model. Other models being used in the USA include Bcorps and so on. They sit between for-profit companies that are limited and make lots of money and charitable organisations which generate money through fund-raising or other initiatives. Social enterprises generate trading services and have a social mission. Abroad they have different governing types. On CICs, I hope the committee will incorporate into this Bill the first change in this regard in UK company law for 100 years. The reason for this is the wealth of knowledge and information of the past 20 years which indicates that there is no appropriate mechanism for social enterprise to exist in the UK. This has now gone to Canada and will also go to Chile.

I suppose we are just able to take some of the best practices and, hopefully, learn from them. Will Senator Quinn repeat his question with regard to the position of co-operatives?