Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Bill [HL]

I am grateful to the noble Baroness, regardless of whether she was trying to have some fun, for moving the amendment and allowing me the opportunity to attempt to explain why the Local Better Regulation Office has been established and, indeed, why the Government chose to name it as they did. As the Committee knows, in 2005 Philip Hampton, in his important report, reported to the Government on the enforcement of regulation in the UK. He noted that local authorities regulate an extremely diverse range of issues and he drew attention to the debt that we all owe local authorities for the protections that they provide—I pay tribute to them for that. I was sorry not to hear the noble Baroness make any reference to the necessity for regulation—and sometimes for new regulation—so that we can live in a more civilised country. Local authority regulatory enforcers sit at the centre of this system, which has grown up over decades and has been shaped and reshaped by numerous Governments, including the noble Baroness’s, through initiatives and regulators. The system is inevitably complex, even very complex. Because of this complexity, local authority regulatory enforcement, as I think is generally accepted— [The Sitting was suspended for a Division in the House from 3.37 to 3.47 pm.]