Clause 37
Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Bill [Lords]
5:15 pm

Pat McFadden (Minister of State (Employment Relations and Postal Affairs), Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform; Wolverhampton South East, Labour)

With your permission, Mr. Chope, perhaps my comments can refer to clause 37 and touch on clause 38, as both clauses are definitional.

Christopher Chope (Christchurch, Conservative)

For people to follow the debate, it is much easier to deal with the Bill clause by clause, which is what we said at the beginning of our proceedings that we shall do.

Pat McFadden (Minister of State (Employment Relations and Postal Affairs), Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform; Wolverhampton South East, Labour)

I take your guidance, Mr. Chope.

Clause 37 defines the terms “regulator” and “designated regulator”. The regulator is a person specified under schedule 5. That lists a number of national regulators to which the powers will refer, many of which are familiar to members of the Committee. Subsection (3) makes it clear what is not included, such as the Crown Prosecution Service, the police and so on because those organisations retain a role in respect of criminal prosecutions that are  an alternative to the sanction regimes that we are discussing now. The clause defines the regulators to which the powers would apply.