Real life and marine life as well, as we are going to discover.
I have three main points but they are not at all major. First, as I think the Minister said, these regulations have been in force since 2009 as part of the implementation of the 2008 Act. Yet there seems to have been a sudden rush of activity since 2015, according to the Explanatory Memorandum. Can he give a little more detail about what is going on here? Is there some new interest in the area, arising from some activity which we were not aware of and, if so, why is all this litter being left around and causing difficulty to ships? I would be interested in the background if that is possible.
Secondly, I do not think the Explanatory Memorandum makes the case very well for OPRED’s lack of ability to force operators to return expediently to compliance. The powers now in these regulations would allow them
to get more information in the form of paper and other documents. That would somehow seem to inform them better but I do not quite see how it will make anybody do anything they are not currently doing. I would be grateful if my puzzlement on that could be met with a bit more information.
In that respect, there was a four-week targeted consultation. I am not saying it is true of this occasion, but whenever I see the words “targeted consultation”, I wonder whether very many people have been involved. Given that there were only two responses from what seems to be a very large sector of our economy with many companies—indeed the Explanatory Memorandum states later on that there is a large number of small companies involved—maybe there could be a few words about whether, in the department’s view, the consultation was as effective as it could have been. There were only two responses, neither of which was significant in terms of what we are told here, but they did manage to persuade OPRED that there should be a change in relation to the power to seize original documents. Paragraph 8.3 says that OPRED decided to take,
“account of industry concerns by caveating it with sensible limitations on the use of the power”,
but does not say what those limitations are. Again, perhaps the Minister could just explain them.
However, my main concern is timing. Members of the department will be aware that every time BEIS comes in with a regulation, I think I have made a point of pointing out that the Government have accepted, as have previous Governments, that there should be adherence where possible to the common commencement dates of 6 April and 1 October. These common commencement dates are there for the benefit of businesses and to make sure that regulations do not sprinkle upon them like rain from the heavens but are brought up at two points in the year when they can anticipate that there will be regulations, plan for them and expect them to be implemented in an appropriate way. There may be some reason for the commencement date, but these regulations seem to be coming into force in a rather ad hoc way. They come into force the day after they are made. The Explanatory Memorandum comments that,
“the critical need for, and core objective of, the instrument”,
means that the regulations,
“will enter into force on the day after they are made and, if feasible, either prior to, or (if apposite) beyond, the next Common Commencement Date of 6 April 2018”.
It happens that 6 April 2018 is not very far away, so it would not have been very difficult, and certainly given the pressures on all concerned not impossible, for these regulations to come in on 6 April. There may be good reasons for bringing them in a few days before then, and I would be interested to hear what they are, but I worry more generally that the department does not, much as I would wish it to, try to work to the common commencement dates. I am sure the Minister will accept that they are important. They have been advertised and adhered to now for, I think, 15 years. It is something we should respect if we can. I would be grateful for his comments.