My Lords, I support this change. I need to declare an interest. I chair the Better Regulation Executive and work very closely with the Better Regulation Delivery Office. I am tempted to say that I regularly meet the regulators, both individually and collectively. I have created a forum, the better regulatory outcomes group, where we meet regulators on a three or four-monthly basis. It was at such a meeting that we floated the concept of revising the code in the first instance. The regulators were very supportive of this, in that many of them are already
adopting the principle of the code, as the Minister has said—but it was inconsistent. They recognise that, today, with better regulation being a high priority for government and the encouragement of economic growth being of paramount importance for the economy, for regulators to be seen to be supporting growth and encouraging companies to grow is of higher priority than it was when the original codes were introduced. I therefore commend this change to the Committee and firmly support it.