Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 40: 40: Clause 27, page 12, line 27, at end insert ““pursuant to the relevant function”” The noble Lord said: My Lords, we come to an important series of amendments which deal with various matters, many raised in Committee, relating to the primary authority’s provisions in Part 2. I will speak to my Amendments Nos. 41, 42 and 44 in due course. The first amendment is technical, aiming to tackle an unintended omission in Clause 27. Primary authority partnerships will be established between businesses and local authorities, and will cover particular areas of regulation. That situation reflects practice under the existing voluntary schemes. Firms will commonly have trading standards partnerships with, for example, a county council and environmental health partnerships with a district council. To use the language of Clause 24, they will be nominated to play the part of primary authority for the ““relevant function””. Clause 27 needs to be limited to reflect that specialisation. An enforcing authority should only be under an obligation to consult the primary authority before taking enforcement actions that follow from the regulatory function in question. For example, an enforcing authority should be under an obligation to contact a business’s primary authority with responsibility for environmental health if, and only if, the issue at hand is an environmental health issue. It should not be required to contact the primary authority responsible, for instance, for trading standards. That reflects practice under the existing home lead schemes, where local authorities will in many cases contact different lead authorities for different areas of regulation. Enforcing authorities should not be required to consult on enforcement actions of every sort. Amendment No. 40 would make this restriction clear. Amendment No. 41 will remove the LBRO’s power to delegate to another body its arbitration functions under Schedule 4. The noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee, and the noble Lords, Lord Cope and Lord Berkeley, expressed concern in the Committee that the LBRO’s power to delegate its arbitration function could result in another body directing a local authority under paragraph 7 of Schedule 4. It has never been our intention that the delegation power should be used in this way. The LBRO will be a relatively small body with a wide-ranging scope. The types of cases that can be referred to the LBRO for arbitration could range from agricultural produce to zoo licensing, dog breeding to explosives. We do not expect the LBRO to have the necessary in-house expertise to effectively arbitrate on all the issues that could be referred to it. Instead, we expect it to consult with, and take the advice of, expert bodies such as national regulators when arbitrating. We think that sufficient provision is made for this purpose without the LBRO delegating its arbitration function to another body. In particular, under Clause 14: "““LBRO may do anything which it thinks necessary and expedient for the purpose of, or in connection with, the exercise of its functions””." That could include seeking advice from a national regulator when arbitrating. In addition, under paragraph 5 of Schedule 4, the LBRO must consult with the relevant national regulator, and may consult other persons it considers appropriate, when arbitrating. Therefore, we are removing the power for the LBRO to delegate its arbitration function. Amendments Nos. 42 and 44 will specify those matters which must be exempt from the requirement to notify a primary authority before enforcement action is taken. For reasons that were discussed in Committee, we considered it important to retain as much flexibility as possible for exemptions to the primary authority provisions to be dealt with by order. Noble Lords may wish to refer to the guide accompanying the Bill, which lists the categories of exemptions that we now intend to make here. The detail of these exemptions needs to be worked up in consultation with those on the ground. We shall consult on the details later this year. We were persuaded by the strength of the argument presented in Committee that where it is possible to do so, such exemptions should be put in the Bill. The noble Viscount, Lord Colville, who I am delighted to see in his place—almost every other hour he is elsewhere in the building chairing the Crossrail committee—tabled an amendment in Committee which would have retained the ability to specify exemptions by order, but set out those circumstances that the orders must address on the face of the Bill. We thought that was a sensible approach, and we have therefore brought forward an amendment which will have that effect. The amendment will set out four exemptions which must be specified in the order. I do not need to set out what the exemptions say as they are in our amendment. I have spoken to the government amendments but there is another one in the group. I beg to move.