Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Bill [HL]

First, I declare an interest as a director of various companies, both private and public, at least some of which are on the Stock Exchange list. They are all shown in the Register of Members’ Interests. I have some sympathy with the noble Baroness’s point and the objectives of her amendment. The way in which the structure of the LBRO has been laid out in parts 2 and 3 of Schedule 1 is very loose and quite difficult, and may over time be open to some form of abuse and cosiness. However, I think that her amendment suffers in two ways. First, there is a technical problem, because using percentages on small boards produces some odd results. Let us say that the board is finally constituted of six members—it can have between five and 10 members. In that case, 25 per cent would mean two members from local government. Percentages are probably the wrong way to go about this. I would prefer to see it expressed as representation from the area that the noble Baroness is concerned about, which is local government. My more fundamental point is that it is not just local government that is concerned with the impact of the Bill. A minute ago, the Minister, in his opening, quasi-Second Reading speech, reminded us that the intention of the Bill is to reduce the burdens on business, so it would be appropriate for there to be some representation for those who are going to be in the regulated community: commerce and industry in our cities, towns and villages across the country. They will have real-life, practical experience to offer about how LBRO is working, or not as the case may be. Secondly, there are several clauses in the Bill concerned with links with Wales: Clause 10 is entitled ““Advice to Welsh Ministers”” and Clause 16 is entitled ““Guidance or directions by Welsh Ministers””. In addition to having all that stuff, which is slightly ex post in the sense that it is the cart after the horse, it would be better to find a way to have some Welsh involvement in the LBRO. While I am extremely sympathetic to what the noble Baroness is seeking to achieve and I agree that we need more precision about how the LBRO will be constituted, I would like the amendment to be less prescriptive about percentages and to include a chance to bring in some of the other people who will be affected, particularly those in Wales and in the business/commercial community.