Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Bill [HL]

I, too, have some sympathy with the general remarks made by the noble Baroness. I was worried about the phrase in the guide about Clause 27 that immediate enforcement action can in effect be taken when the delay of consultation would seriously jeopardise public health, the environment or consumer protection. I am surprised at the inclusion of the word ““seriously””. There are occasions when an inspector goes into premises, especially if food is involved, and wants to shut the place down immediately because there is a risk to public health. Sometimes it may not be a big risk—it may be quite a small one—but the inspector wants to have the threat of being able to close the premises down even for a small risk. That is extremely important. To have to argue that something is a serious risk to public health and could spread all over the place is not a good thing. To a degree, the question of serious risk may be more appropriate in cases such as the environment or consumer protection, but so far as public health is concerned, it is not. Further, all this is to be dealt with by order because it is not part of the Bill and the guide only suggests the way in which the order might be drafted. Given that, it would be very helpful if we could see the order before we reach Report so as to be reassured about it. When we discuss the order itself, we shall not be able simply to delete the word ““seriously”” because there will be no provision for amendments. That is why we need to discuss the detail at this point.