Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Bill [HL]

By chance, I am a member of both the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee and the Merits of Statutory Instruments Committee. I will not comment on Amendment No. 16, except to give the personal view that it is always welcome when a direction is turned into an order. As I say, that is a personal view. The letter has been written to the chairman of the committee—the noble Lord, Lord Goodhart—and I think that the committee has not yet responded. On the point made by the noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee, I thought that people in general had a right to understand the laws under which they have to live. Simply to say that it is very difficult to tell people—this is entirely the point made by the noble Baroness—and that it is a nuisance to make a list does not seem to be good enough. Apart from anything else, the bodies concerned will take legal advice and their legal advisers will have to create a database of the European regulations and the transposition of those regulations through the statutory instruments that follow a lot of them. Otherwise, they will not be in a position to give their clients the right advice. However the issue is tackled, it is not really good enough to say that it is impracticable.