Legislative Reform (Dangerous Wild Animals) (Licensing) Order 2010

My Lords, I thank the Minister for presenting the draft order. My notes also start with the interesting history of how it has come to be adjusted. Normally, we would welcome deregulation and the Government's intention in this respect, but it is clear that concern was expressed by local authorities that there would be no real saving to them if the original proposal went through. To give credit where it is due, the department took those opinions on board and dropped that proposal from the order. The most controversial element of the order has therefore disappeared from the table and I can see little to object to in the remaining two proposals. We should join in congratulating the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee on its eagle-eyed scrutiny of the original draft. However, I should like the Minister to give us a little more detail about the consequences of proposal 2. The maximum period of a licence will be doubled to two years but, while I applaud the efforts to reduce red tape and bureaucratic interference, what efforts will the Government make to ensure that suitably rigorous standards of animal welfare and public safety are upheld under the new inspection regime? I have two further forensic points to make; the Minister knows that I like to pick out a few queries. On page 2, under proposed new subsections (3) and (3A)(a) and (b), the licence validity is to be extended from one to two years. A further extension consequent to allowing a licence to continue beyond its expiry date because the renewal permission is not received before expiry should surely be limited to a fixed period. In other words, in a situation where the licence expiry period has overrun, it would start again from the renewal date and not from the date on which it should have originally expired. That seems to be anomalous. Section 1(6)(a)(iv) of the Dangerous Wild Animals Act 1976, which is to be found on page 20 of the Accompanying Statement, concerns insurance. At the moment, a licence lasts for a year and one of the conditions for it is that an animal keeper shall have insurance. We know that all insurance policies are renewed on an annual basis. How can local authorities ensure that a second year of insurance is in place? Will there be some sort of arrangement whereby the licence holder has to provide evidence that the animals have been reinsured? How does the new regime operate? I am all in favour of the two-year period of renewal, but we should be mindful of this provision for insurance. Other than for those points, we welcome the order.