Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Bill [HL]

I accept the technicality, but the body is working in the public area as distinct from the commercial or business area. My point is that it takes some time to get to know the ropes in an organisation that is full of people working part time. It is quite different if you turn up Monday to Friday every week, for weeks and months on end. This is a part-time post and it will take a considerable time to learn the ropes, whatever the person’s background and experience. Of course, the members have to get to know one another, their strengths and weaknesses, the staff and so on. There is provision for reappointment, so three years does not seem to be too short a period in one sense. However, in another sense, you get into the swing of things and get to know what you are doing in the second year; in the third year, if you are interested in the job, you are concerned about whether you will be able to continue in it. You may give a lot of attention to whether you will be reappointed and whether you will upset the Secretary of State if you go in a certain direction. The Secretary of State, in consultation with the chairman, will determine reappointment. Of course, there is no magic, whether the period is three years, five years or six years. All sorts of organisations have had similar periods and have changed; there is no absolutely correct way. I suggest that three years seems a little short for a part-time position in a public body. You would soon get to the third year and be thinking of retirement or reappointment and attitudes may change because of that. I am not at all sure that the Government have got it wrong.