Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Bill [HL]

The Committee will be grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Hodgson, for tabling this amendment, speaking to it and giving us some real-life examples of the problem he set out. It gives me an opportunity to comment on the range of work undertaken by local authority regulatory services. Their work to protect the public under many different headings often involves direct co-operation with the police; for instance, where trading standards officers tackle major organised scams or licensing officers work to tackle the implications of under-age sales for community safety. The overlaps are many and we expect—I am sure it will happen—the LBRO to liaise routinely with the Home Office, not least through its powers to give advice to Ministers on any matter relating to the exercise of the relevant functions by local authorities. That may well extend to questions of overlap and liaison with the work of other relevant authorities, including the police. However—I suspect that the noble Lord thought a ““however””, if not a ““but””, was coming—it is clear that a direct extension of the LBRO’s work in the manner proposed, which one can see from reading further on in Clause 6 would require the police to have regard to its guidance, would be a significant departure from the body that we have consulted upon. It would require a complete review of many other aspects of the legislation, not least the LBRO’s objective, which the noble Lord has been trying to widen during the course of our proceedings this afternoon. We do not think his amendment is the answer, but I reassure him, if I can, that this evening he has proved the relevance of the connection between police work and regulatory work by local authorities.