Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Bill [HL]

I, too, am concerned about this clause. The noble Lord, Lord Jones, described the emergence of new attitudes and new approaches, but I can think of few things that are more likely to cause the hardening of attitudes than the stark nature of the statements in Clause 29; for example, the power to, "““charge the regulated person such fees as [the primary authority] considers to represent the costs reasonably incurred””." There is no provision for appeal or for being able to challenge that. I accept entirely what the noble Lord said. His speech in response to the earlier stand part debate was encouraging to a major degree and a very welcome, different approach from what we have heard in the past. I think that he should look at finding a way to reassure the regulated person—whoever that may be—that the fees charged are reasonable and are not dreamt up in a way that may be seen to be unreasonable and unnecessary. Of course, the large companies will be able to make a fuss but, once again, it will be the smaller companies that find it is not worth proceeding because of the effort, administrative cost and regulatory burden involved. I am with the Minister all the way with regard to attitudinal change but this is where we could ensure that the underlying attitudinal change was reinforced.