Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Bill [HL]

My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Cope, for tabling Amendments Nos. 1 and 2. I take this opportunity also to thank noble Lords for the time and attention that they have accorded to this important Bill. We have listened and we have considered carefully all the amendments proposed. We have made numerous concessions which we believe will improve the Bill, please noble Lords and enable us to complete our consideration of the Bill today. However, the first amendment is not one that we can accept. I shall explain to the House why we chose the name ““Local Better Regulation Office””. We completely accept that the office is not a local one but a national body. However, the phrase ““Better Regulation””, which appears in the middle of the LBRO’s name, refers to a well recognised concept in policy making. The Better Regulation Executive, which leads across government on regulatory reform, is a part of my own department; indeed, I am the Minister for Better Regulation. The LBRO is about better regulation at a local level, which is local better regulation. I would not dream of suggesting that anyone is being pedantic, but we could have quite a long debate on semantics. The key issue is that the LBRO will promote better regulation locally. That could be phrased as local better regulation or better local regulation, but the former name maintains the better regulation brand and is therefore, I believe, the correct sequence of words in this case. As my noble friend Lord Borrie suggests, the LBRO has been in existence since last year. It already has brand recognition. It has written to every local authority in England and Wales. It has a draft strategy that has been consulted on in its name. Changing its name now without good reason would lose the value of that brand recognition and require the office to spend time rebuilding its reputation. In addition, there would be administrative and legal costs associated with any change of name, which we estimate would be about £35,000. These would include the cost of rebranding stationery, user guides and websites, as well as legal fees on, for example, company documentation, pensions, payrolls et cetera. I understand that £35,000 may not seem much but, coming from the Treasury, I should point out that it is the annual salary of an average teacher or policeman. I understand the point that the noble Lord makes but I hope that in the light of what I have said he will feel able to withdraw the amendment.