Clause 51 - Financial penalties
Water Bill [Lords]
10:45 am
Mr Bill Wiggin (Leominster, Conservative)
I beg to move amendment No. 84, in
clause 51, page 62, line 6, leave out from 'penalty' to end of line 7.
I have been looking forward to this amendment, because the idea that a penalty should be
''of such amount as is reasonable in all the circumstances of the case''
should be implicit. My amendment would ensure that it was implicit. I do not understand how a penalty of ''such amount'' could be unreasonable. All penalties should of course be reasonable in the circumstances of the case; that should be fundamentally implicit.
Having been told all morning that various things are implicit, I think that the amendment would delete some unnecessary verbiage from the Bill and ensure that all penalties were naturally balanced, reasonable and took into consideration all circumstances of the case.