My Lords, here again we have a series of government amendments in varying degrees of complexity. I want further information on some of these amendments in relation to other
requirements and punishments relating to people who commit the offence under various Acts as listed in government Amendment 43 and other amendments in the group. Is the noble Lord saying that in all cases of alleged offences, first they will be dealt with under the Acts he referred to in his contribution and only later on will an LME be sought? Will he clarify that when he responds and also how it is all going to work?
A trigger offence is committed and action is taken, as the noble Lord outlined in his amendments. Then requirements are sought from individuals and that can be a prohibition, a restriction or a requirement for further action that will reduce the risk of the person not complying up to a maximum duration of two years. He said that this could be reduced on application by the enforcing authority. My concern is that the Government do not always have a particularly good record in ensuring that all these present requirements are enforced to the full extent. If you look at the enforcement activity for breaches of the national minimum wage, I would suggest it was not a record to be particularly proud of. Will these additional burdens make enforcement easier and more effective or not? It would be useful if the noble Lord could respond to that point as well.
My noble friend Lord Rosser made reference in a previous debate to the question of how, with increased work and cuts in resources, we can ensure that these increased powers will be properly resourced. The worry is that there will be so much stuff here that we will actually end up with poor enforcement, not better enforcement.
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I also noticed that, with new subsections (6), (7) and (8) proposed in government Amendment 46, we are moving into the 21st century: with some caveats a labour market enforcement notice can be sent to individuals by electronic means. That is certainly progress. Will the noble Lord, Lord Ashton of Hyde, bring that matter to the attention of his friends in BIS? I am thinking of the noble Baroness, Lady Neville-Rolfe. We have some contradiction between how people who have allegedly committed offences are treated and how law-abiding citizens are treated in the Trade Union Bill—it is going through this House on virtually the same timescale—under which they are not allowed to receive their ballot paper by electronic means. There could be some interesting amendments in the next few weeks. We have the Government supporting the use of electronic means here, but at the same denying their use for people trying to get their ballot paper. That is a contradiction. I will leave it there and look forward to the Minister’s response.