Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill

I thank the hon. Member for Somerton and Frome (Mr. Heath) for his good wishes. Let me begin by thanking my friend and predecessor, my hon. Friend the Member for East Renfrewshire (Mr. Murphy), for his hard work in taking this Bill through its Second Reading and Committee stages. I know that it has been a great wrench for him to have to leave this Bill to take up his new post in the Department for Work and Pensions. [Laughter.] Today, we are debating a series of important amendments to the Bill, which are in large part the Government’s response to some of the criticisms raised and fears expressed about the Bill. As my hon. Friend the Member for East Renfrewshire made clear at earlier stages, the Government did not approach those issues with a closed mind. We said that we would listen, but we were also anxious to have a better regulation system, which could root out and change unnecessary or outdated burdens on business, the public sector, charities and the voluntary sector. We should not forget that this is the third time in 12 years that Parliament has legislated on these issues. The amendments today will rightly take us into some detail, but the wider need for the Bill could not be clearer. We operate in a more global and competitive world economic environment than has ever been the case in our history.