Clause 20 - Code of practice
Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill
12:00 pm
Christopher Chope (Christchurch, Conservative)
May I ask the Minister to expand on the effectiveness of the sanctions described in the clause for breaches of the code of practice? It seems that breaches of the code of practice that result in additional costs on business will not enable businesses to claim for the consequential damages arising from breaches of the code. The most that they can hope for is that any breaches of the code could be used as mitigation of penalties imposed. I understand that quite often the Office of Fair Trading will put forward proposals and if they are not accepted by the parties involved, it will say, “If you do not accept these, we will insist on higher penalties.” So it will effectively exercise a process of extortion on the people whom it is investigating.
If we are to have regulators who will operate outwith this code of practice, surely there should be an effective sanction. When I studied jurisprudence, one of the principles that we looked at was that there is no point having a command without a sanction. If the Minister accepts that principle, can he point out where the effective sanctions are for breaches of the code of practice under the clause?