Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 21: 21: Clause 5, page 3, line 31, at end insert ““, and (d) in accordance with any code issued from time to time under section 22 of the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Act 2006 (c. 51)”” The noble Lord said: My proposed addition of a new subsection, Clause 5(1)(d), would formalise within the objectives of the LBRO the requirement that local authorities exercise their functions in accordance with the compliance code. I am grateful for the assistance of the British Retail Consortium in drafting these amendments. A key motive for establishing the LBRO is to encourage a culture among local authority enforcement services in which the approaches recommended by the Hampton review of regulatory enforcement would be followed. Essentially, those are better co-ordination and consistency, a risk-based approach, targeting of rogue traders, securing compliance as the objective rather than punishment and prosecution, and education and information taking a central role as the preferred means of securing compliance. That approach is expressed officially in the compliance code. It is also relevant that when Professor Macrory recommended the introduction of administrative penalties, he said that they should be introduced only for regulators that were consistently Hampton-compliant. It is appropriate that the objectives of the LBRO should include ensuring that local authorities exercise their functions in accordance with the compliance code. I beg to move.