Clause 26
Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Bill [Lords]
12:45 pm
Pat McFadden (Minister of State (Employment Relations and Postal Affairs), Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform; Wolverhampton South East, Labour)
This is an important discussion, because how such relationships will work is at the heart of part 2 of the Bill. As the hon. Member for Hertford and Stortford pointed out, the clause deals with how the establishments are to be set up and revoked. They could be ended for several reasons. For example, LBRO might consider a local authority to be no longer suitable for the task, or a business might relocate its headquarters from one local authority area to another and request that a nomination be revoked so that it could enter a new primary authority partnership. There might be a takeover of one supermarket chain by another, as has happened in the past, in which the supermarket that is taking over the other already has a relationship with a primary authority. Alternatively, a business and its primary authority might be abusing the provisions and LBRO might wish to change their partnership.
This issue was raised on Second Reading when sweetheart deals, in which relevant businesses and local authorities have cosy relationships but enforcement authorities have a problem, were discussed. There has to be a mechanism for dealing with such situations, but the amendment would not put LBRO under a duty to change the situation. The examples that I have given involve situations in which a business or a regulated person requests that a nomination be revoked and it is open to LBRO to do that. The amendment would not put LBRO under a duty to do so, but would allow it to. That is already within its power, but it raises questions about whether there are circumstances in which LBRO could refuse a request from a business to put an end to a partnership. The Bill should allow LBRO flexibility to work with a business and a local authority to put a matter right if the relationship is not working. It would not be helpful, in all cases, to have a statutory requirement on LBRO to put an end to a partnership without question. I understand what the amendment is trying to do, but I am not sure that that is the right way to do it.