Compensation Bill [HL]

I absolutely understand what the noble Lord is saying about the apparent breadth of this provision, but I am assured that ““generally”” only means ““generally”” within the scope of this Bill and that it does not mean anything wider than that. I hope that I can also reassure the noble Lord that, first, we obviously need the flexibility—I have tried to indicate what I mean by ““flexibility””, which is not ““uncertainty””—to implement regulation which is proportionate. For example, there might be cases where we want to make an order bringing a new sector into regulation but we want it to apply only to a particular part of the sector in question. Secondly, we have taken this provision from other legislation which allows for regulations to be applied in this flexible way. The example that I have here is the Age-related Payments Act 2004, but I gather that there are similar provisions in the Criminal Justice Act 2003 and the Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants, etc.) Act 2004. It is as simple as that. Because of the way that it would apply in law, we do not think that this is a broad provision. On that basis, although I am happy to discuss the matter further, I hope that the noble Lord will feel able to withdraw the amendment.