Clause 44 - Enforcement powers in connection with pesticides
Natural Environment and Rural Communities Bill
4:15 pm
James Paice (Shadow Minister (Agriculture), Environment, Food & Rural Affairs; South East Cambridgeshire, Conservative)
I suggest to the hon. Lady that there is a significant difference between a care standards inspector and somebody—we do not yet know who, as we have not debated that point—who will act as an inspector under the clause. There is nothing in the clause to say who inspectors will be or who they will be employed by—if, indeed, they will be employed by anybody. All that they will need is written authorisation from the Secretary of State. They will not necessarily be the busy, full-time employees whom the hon. Lady describes. The clause is so wide that any comparison that she makes will not necessarily be accurate, because we do not know what we are talking about. Even so, I suggest that there is a great gulf between what might happen in the care homes to which she refers and the offence that we are discussing, which, as the hon. Member for South-East Cornwall said, is only an offence of possession.