Clause 7 - Keeping of records
Vehicles (Crime) Bill
6:00 pm
Mr John Bercow (Buckingham, Conservative)
I am grateful to my hon. Friend, who is elaborating on the extent of the burden. Will he confirm to me that he is motivated to make that point, at least in part, by his recollection of an observation made on 20 January 2000—it has almost reached its first anniversary—by the director general of the British Chambers of Commerce, Mr. Chris Humphries? He observed:
Despite its rhetoric the reality is that the Government have dramatically increased the regulatory burden that threatens small business competitiveness.
Does my hon. Friend agree that if the Government have conducted preliminary consultation with business about the nature and detail of the regulations under this measure—I do not doubt that Ministers, or at least their agents, have done so—there is no good reason why, to aid and abet our consideration of the Bill, we should not have sight of the draft regulations before Report?