Clause 42
Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Bill [Lords]
6:00 pm
Judy Mallaber (PPS (Rt Hon Baroness Ashton of Upholland, President of the Council (Leader of the House of Lords)), Privy Council Office; Amber Valley, Labour)
My hon. Friend referred to the Macrory report. Does he agree that some of the fines that it quotes for health and safety offences are absolutely shocking? Some businesses have benefited 10 times as much by non-compliance as they have ended up being fined. Any cap on discretionary fines would not enable the necessary discretion to charge a business a low fine where appropriate while ensuring that an organisation doing something completely out of order was not left in pocket as a result of non-compliance.