Clause 3 - Limitations on order-making power
Regulatory Reform Bill [Lords]
5:15 pm
Mr Graham Stringer (Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office; Manchester, Blackley, Labour)
I am not prepared to say what the hon. Gentleman would like me to say. The Bill's objective is to improve regulatory regimes. Such improvements must have a deregulatory element to them—which was passed as an amendment in the other place—and would have to pass the test of proportionality and all the other tests. I will not pretend that I can do a sum here and now to guarantee that one way or another, because someone might come along in 12 months and say, ``You were wrong.'' I am not prepared to say what the hon. Gentleman wants me to, because it is impossible to say that unless one has been through the process of assessing the regulations. We are clear in our objectives: to help businesses, individuals and public sector bodies by reforming the regulatory regimes that often inhibit them, and to rebalance those regulatory regimes in a better way, using the tests in the Bill and including a deregulatory element. As much as the hon. Gentleman might want me to, I am afraid that I cannot go further than that. I agree with what he said about the amendment not being a helpful addition to the Bill.