Compensation Bill [HL]

My Lords, I certainly tried as well. I tried very hard to deal with this and I am grateful to the noble Lord for raising this matter again as it helps me fulfil the commitment that I made that I would look at it. I have done lots of things including talking to Parliamentary Counsel about this matter because I understand what the noble Lord is seeking to do. I would like to state for the record why we have stuck with the original wording. In the context of the principles of administrative law, requirement to try to meet targets is no less strict than a requirement to take all reasonable steps. Unless the regulator has taken all reasonable steps, he will not have tried sufficiently to satisfy his legal duty. The requirement to ““try to”” is also already found in the statute book and I do not want to suggest by any means that amending here somehow suggests that the duty is a weaker one in other parts of legislation. I draw the noble Lord’s attention to Section 2(7) of the Civil Procedure Act 1997 or Section 10(4)(f) of the Police (Northern Ireland) Act 2003 where the same words are used. I did go away, I discussed this, I looked into whether there were other options because I understood the point the noble Lord was seeking to achieve. But I was convinced by Parliamentary Counsel that in the context of the way in which this works both in current statute and in administrative law that we had a phrase that would achieve what the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, and I both wish to achieve—that is to ensure that, failing other actions that we cannot predict, the regulator is heading towards meeting his targets.