Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill

I should like to make some progress. The definition of ““burden”” in new clause 19 provides the flexibility to supply the wide-ranging better regulation initiatives necessary to deliver the reform that businesses, the public sector and voluntary and charitable organisations want. The new clause focuses the order-making power in a different way from the 2001 Act, as it is output-focused and concentrates not on the way in which legislation should be reformed, but on the reasons for that reform. The order-making power in the 2001 Act concentrated more on the way in which legislation could be reformed. It removed legislative restrictions and so on but, after five years, that has proved limiting, and it has not provided the breadth of better regulation initiatives necessary to deliver the Government’s better regulation agenda. It has not provided the scope of deregulation to which the main Opposition are committed, so useful regulatory reform orders could not be delivered. The change in emphasis will make it easier and quicker for Government Departments to introduce proposals to make a genuine difference to the regulatory and inspection burden.