Clause 54 - Reasons for decisions
Water Bill [Lords]
11:15 am
Mr Elliot Morley (Minister of State (Environment and Agri-Environment), Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs; Scunthorpe, Labour)
Clause 54 is intended to increase regulatory transparency, openness and certainty. It requires the authority, the Secretary of State and the National Assembly for Wales to publish and disseminate reasons for decisions taken in relation to
undertakers' conditions of appointment and the licences of licensed water suppliers. I would not have thought that that was controversial, because it is important to have information. It is necessary to prescribe a minimum acceptable level of publicity to ensure that the provision achieves its aim and continues to do so. The purpose of the amendment may be to promote a more general responsibility or approach to publishing decisions, but it would risk reducing the openness of the process by removing that part of the provision which forces a reasonable level of publication. The provision provides a minimum safeguard to ensure that the information is in the public domain.