Clause 41
Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Bill [Lords]
6:00 pm
Pat McFadden (Minister of State (Employment Relations and Postal Affairs), Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform; Wolverhampton South East, Labour)
The clause ensures that where the regulator serves a notice of intent on a person prior to imposing a fixed monetary penalty, that person cannot be criminally prosecuted for the same event to which the notice relates during the period within which they can discharge their liability to the penalty. Similarly, a person cannot be prosecuted for the same event if they discharge their liability to the penalty or the regulator decides to go ahead and impose it. That is down to familiar reasons of double jeopardy. Unpaid monetary penalties will be forced through the civil courts. The Bill, and clause 52 in particular, will ensure that regulators have access to an efficient and streamlined procedure for recovering monetary penalties.