Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Bill [HL]

I take my noble friend’s point, and I hope that his concern will be addressed by the suggestion made by my noble friend Lord Borrie. I refer to Amendment No. 191A, tabled by the noble Lord, Lord De Mauley, which would exclude local authorities from ever having to have that duty applied to them. The Government’s view is that the duty should be able to be applied to any person carrying out a regulatory function where it would further the better regulation agenda to do so. We are not convinced that local authorities should be exempt from even the potential application of the duty for all time. Although we accept that local authorities are already subject to overview, as LACORS suggests in its briefing, the duty, which is specifically targeted at the removal of unnecessary burdens, could provide some additional focus. In his review, Hampton established that around 80 per cent of regulatory inspections are carried out by local authorities, and are a source of significant irritation to businesses. The Committee need only refer to Schedule 3 to see the numerous and diverse Acts of Parliament already referred to that local authorities enforce. It is possible that unnecessary burdens result from local authority regulatory activities and, on that basis, I hope that the Committee agree that we would not want to give the impression that this part has no relevance. In the light of that, I hope that my noble friend will be able to withdraw his amendment.