Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 8: 8: Clause 4, page 3, line 18, leave out subsection (7) and insert— ““(7) The Secretary of State may by order determine whether, for the purposes of subsection (3), an enactment made under section 2(2) of the European Communities Act 1972 (c.68) is made with respect to any of the matters specified in that subsection. (7A) An order under subsection (7) requires the consent of the Welsh Ministers where— (a) the determination affects the application of this Part in relation to local authorities in Wales, and (b) the enactment made under section 2(2) of the European Communities Act 1972 relates to a Welsh ministerial matter.”” The noble Lord said: My Lords, I also speak to government Amendments Nos. 12 and 37. Amendments Nos. 8 and 37 are linked. Amendment No. 8 will require that any direction issued by the Secretary of State under Clause 4(7) is made by way of an order subject to the negative resolution procedure. Amendment No. 37 is consequential to this. These amendments respond to the comments of the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee regarding Clauses 4(3) and 4(7) and our treatment of the relevant statutory instruments made under Section 2(2) of the European Communities Act 1972. The committee has stated that it is content with the approach we have taken in Amendment No. 37. There was a good debate in Committee and I would like to explain our approach. The scope of Parts 1 and 2 is determined by reference to the ““regulatory functions”” of local authorities arising, first, under any of the Acts listed in Schedule 3 and statutory instruments made under those Acts; and secondly, under secondary legislation made under Section 2(2) of the European Communities Act. The use of category headings to capture the secondary legislation made under Section 2(2) of the ECA is intended to facilitate the interpretation of the scope of Parts 1 and 2 of the Bill. In most cases, it will be clear whether a set of regulations falls within one of the category headings. Such regulations themselves generally include a heading such as ““Animal Health”” or ““Consumer Protection””. Where there is doubt, a power has been included to allow the Secretary of State to determine whether an instrument made under Section 2(2) falls within the scope of one of the category headings at Clause 4(7). Amendment No. 37 will make this determination subject to the negative resolution procedure. I hope that noble Lords will feel able to support these amendments and hope that we have met the concerns of the Delegated Powers Committee and the Committee on the Bill. On Amendment No. 12, it was noted in Committee by the noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee, that while the LBRO is required to consult persons who are subject to regulation—usually businesses or their representatives—before issuing guidance, it is not explicitly required to consult local authorities. It has always been our intention that the LBRO should do so under the broader requirement to consult such persons as it considers appropriate, set out at Clause 6(4)(b). We were therefore very happy to consider the noble Baroness’s amendment, which would have added a specific requirement to consult local authorities. Amendment No. 12 has this effect. It requires the LBRO to consult such local authorities—or their representatives—as it considers appropriate. This reflects the fact that guidance may only affect a subset of local authorities. For instance, guidance on trading standards would only be relevant for unitary and county councils. The LBRO needs the flexibility to conduct a more tailored consultation than an unqualified requirement to consult all local authorities would require. I beg to move.