Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 33: 33: Clause 7, page 4, line 25, at end insert— ““(3A) Where a direction under this section relates to two or more local authorities in England and Wales, consent under subsection (2) or (3) must be given by order.”” The noble Lord said: I shall speak also to Amendments Nos. 52, 55, 59, 60, 61, 63 and 66. This group of amendments implements two recommendations by the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee of this House in relation to Parts 1 and 2 of the Bill. On Amendment No. 33, the committee took the view that the use of the LBRO’s powers of direction to make compliance with guidance compulsory for local authorities, or Ministers’ use of their power of direction over the LBRO to do so, would have an essentially legislative character where these affected more than one local authority. Noble Lords will have seen the committee’s report on this issue, which recommended that any such directions should be made subject to parliamentary scrutiny through the negative resolution procedure. There is no intention that the powers of direction should be used to circumvent Parliament or the Welsh Assembly. The Government have therefore accepted the recommendation in full and the amendment would implement it in both the English and Welsh contexts. Amendments Nos. 52 and 55 relate to Clauses 15 and 16 and deal with the related changes to Ministers’ directive powers. Amendments Nos. 59 to 61 relate to Clause 18. However, it is important that I should tell the Committee that, because I did not press an earlier government amendment, Amendment No. 60 should read, ““A statutory instrument containing an order made by the Secretary of State under section 7(3A) or 15(6)””. The reference to ““4(7)”” is taken out because that would have followed only if I had pressed my earlier amendment. It is a technical matter but it is important that it should be on the record. The amendments to Clauses 15, 16 and 18 would make appropriate changes to the procedure for statutory instruments under Part 1. These amendments would make all the relevant orders subject to the negative resolution procedure, again in line with the recommendation of the committee. Amendment No. 66 would implement a recommendation by the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee relating to the way that the LBRO’s scope in Scotland and Northern Ireland is defined in Part 2. Clause 22 allows the Secretary of State to specify by order those enactments which specify regulatory functions performed by local authorities which will come within the scope of the primary authority scheme in Scotland and Northern Ireland. The committee took the view that this provision should be subject to the negative resolution procedure on condition that the orders were not used to extend the scope beyond that already listed for England and Wales in Schedule 3 and Clause 4(3). The Government have accepted the substance of this recommendation subject to a minor drafting change. Had we restricted the orders to legislation already listed in the Bill for England and Wales, this may have resulted in the omission of legislation having an effect equivalent to that in Schedule 3 or Clause 4(3) for England and Wales but which is specified in legislation for Scotland and Northern Ireland. For example, many regulations that apply elsewhere in the UK under generic Acts of Parliament have been applied in Northern Ireland by Order in Council under the Northern Ireland legislation. Those should not be excluded, and the drafting change will not affect the substance of the order-making power. It will not be possible for the Secretary of State to extend the scope of application of the Bill in respect of Scotland or Northern Ireland by way of an order under the clause. The amendment would therefore restrict the orders not to the legislation listed in the Bill but to legislation which contains equivalent functions to those conferred by legislation listed in the Bill where this differs. I beg to move.