Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill

With the Deputy Speaker’s permission, I am happy to do so. The legal effect of new clause 19 relates to the power to remove or reduce burdens. The purpose for which the power can be exercised contains two alternatives. The first is the removing or reducing of any burden resulting for any person directly or indirectly from legislation. The second is removing or reducing the overall burdens resulting for any person directly or indirectly from legislation. Removing or reducing a burden from one person may increase the burdens upon others, so the first alternative could permit an overall increase on persons as a whole. For example, where a regulatory regime is being placed on a risk basis, costs on low-risk businesses could go down, while costs on high-risk businesses may go up. The second alternative requires a removal or reduction of burdens overall, although this would permit the imposition of new burdens where the overall effect was a removal or reduction of burdens. This is similar to the position under the 2001 Act; if a burden is removed, new burdens may be added. Orders as a whole, including any new burdens, must meet the safeguards, including, for example, being proportionate to the policy objective of the order. In particular, I draw the hon. Gentleman’s attention to the precondition in clause 3(2)(c), which requires that Ministers consider that the provision as a whole"““strikes a fair balance between the public interest and the interests of any person adversely affected by it””." This precondition, which is clearly particularly relevant where burdens are imposed or increased, also mirrors the existing position under the 2001 Act. The explanatory document will include both a summary of consultation responses, and an assessment of the extent to which an order to be made under new clause 19 removes or reduces burdens. Also, a detailed impact assessment would be provided, where appropriate, and these documents would explain the rationale behind the proposals. The expectation is that in most cases the overall burden will have been reduced, but for the reason stated above the Government believe that we need the flexibility to add burdens as well as remove them, if these burdens are to be useful in delivering better regulation.