Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Bill [HL]

My Lords, I thank the noble Lord for raising this issue. Clause 65 requires the Minister who made the order giving a regulator access to the new civil sanctions to review whether that order has implemented its objectives. In conducting the review, the Minister will have regard to such issues as whether there are any obstacles to the use of the new sanctioning powers, whether the drafting of the order has caused any unintended consequences, or whether the way the sanctions have been implemented has created incentives to use particular sanctions. The review will be focusing on the design and implementation of the sanctioning regime in the legislative order. Like other post-implementation reviews, however, this is a one-off review. Amendment No. 88A would go further and require the Minister to review the order every three years. We do not expect a tick box revenue-raising exercise given that it will be the Treasury and not the regulators who will keep the revenue. I question the value of a rolling three-year review relative to the ongoing bureacucracy and constant review process that it will engender, in particular given that we would expect any failings in the design of the sanctioning regime to have been identified within the first three years of operation and as needs may arise on an ongoing basis. There is nothing, of course, which prevents the Minister and the regulator from conducting further reviews on an ad hoc basis. This is a much more flexible approach to this issue than an inflexible and onerous requirement to conduct a review every three years. There are other safeguards, some of which the noble Lord alluded to. The Minister has the power to suspend a regulator’s sanctioning powers in the event of persistent misuse of the sanctions. There will also be other checks and balances. For example, if a regulator’s decisions are consistently overturned on appeal, we would expect the Senior President of Tribunals to bring such matters to the Government’s attention as part of his duty to make an annual report under Section 43 of the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007. Regulators are already obliged to have regard to the better regulation principles contained in the compliance code. Regulators are already subject to regular Hampton implementation reviews. As noble Lords may know, the first five such reviews were published on 20 March. Ministers also have the right to monitor a regulator’s performance as part of existing governance arrangements. These mechanisms will be effective in discovering problems in the culture and performance of regulators. I hope that in the light of the comprehensive set of checks that already exist on regulators the noble Lord will feel able to withdraw the amendment.