Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Bill [HL]

I am grateful to Members of the Committee for discussing these important amendments. I will do my best to respond, first, to the noble Viscount, Lord Eccles. Our amendment fully implements the recommendations of the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee on this point. It was concerned that, "““directions under clause 7 should (if they will affect more than a single authority) be contained in an instrument subject to the negative procedure””." On the noble Viscount’s question about the LBRO giving directions to local authorities sequentially, one at a time, effectively circumventing this amendment, if that were the case, the LBRO would certainly be acting against the Government’s intentions in laying our amendments. Anticipating Clauses 15 and 16, were the LBRO to act in this way, the Government would certainly consider using their powers of direction to stop it doing so. But the LBRO needs the discretion to take administrative decisions on particular authorities if such issues arise, and the amended provision allows for this. The noble and learned Lord, Lord Lyell, asked whether Amendment No. 33 made a difference to the mandatory position of Clause 7. I am sure that I disappoint him by saying that it does not: it is still a direction clause rather than a guidance clause—the ““have regard to””. When we are discussing whether Clause 7 should stand part of the Bill, I will explain why we—and not just us; there are some perhaps surprising allies on this—felt that there had to be a sort of backstop compulsory element in case this did not work. Directions would require that local authorities must comply with them. I hope we are satisfying the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee in agreeing that this was not suitable for ministerial diktat but needed to go through an order under the negative procedure. In other words, Parliament would have a role before such a direction could be issued. I hope that that answers the noble Viscount’s question to some extent, and hope to do better when we talk about whether Clause 7 should stand part. I am grateful for what the noble Baroness, Lady Wilcox, said. If she will be patient—and I know that she is a very patient woman—she will see my noble friend Lord Jones very shortly.