Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill

If the hon. Gentleman will allow me to continue, perhaps I shall do that. The Government have a number of regulatory functions—for example, the company law regulatory functions within the Department of Trade and Industry, and the pesticides directorate, which has regulatory functions in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. The Government believe that these regulators, too, should conduct their business in a manner that is risk-based. For that reason, it should be possible to use an order, if necessary, for better regulation purposes to change an aspect of these Government regulatory functions, so that all regulators conduct their business in a way that is risk-based. Orders should be able, for instance, to move these Government functions into those of an independent regulator if it were more efficient to do so. Two consequential amendments should be mentioned in this context. Of the many amendments before us, I draw the attention of the House to amendments Nos. 38 and 39, which ensure that any Minister laying an order to be made under new clause 19 must include in the explanatory document laid before Parliament, as appropriate, an assessment of the extent to which it would remove or reduce burdens as defined in new clause 19. So we have on the one hand the more focused order-making power, and on the other hand an explanatory memorandum from Ministers relating precisely to that power. Two further consequential amendments on which I shall touch briefly are amendments Nos. 60 and 62, which relate to the definition of regulatory functions. Amendment No. 62 inserts the definition of regulatory functions, which was previously part of clause 24, in clause 32 instead. That is because it is now relevant to both part 1 and part 2, because of new clauses 19 and 20. New clause 19 provides that an order may not remove or reduce burdens which affect only a Minister or Government Department unless, as I said, that is in the exercise of a regulatory function. New clause 20 provides that a Minister may, by order, make provision which he considers would secure that regulatory functions are exercised so as to comply with the five better regulation principles. We shall discuss that new clause in more detail later in our proceedings. The focusing of the power in new clause 19 on the removal or reduction of burdens and the additional safeguard that has been added mean that we are confident that the clause creates the output-focused rationale for a legislative vehicle to deliver regulatory reform effectively.