Clause 29
Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Bill [Lords]
4:15 pm
Pat McFadden (Minister of State (Employment Relations and Postal Affairs), Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform; Wolverhampton South East, Labour)
I hope I can shed some light on the hon. Gentleman’s questions. As he rightly said, clause 29 allows the Secretary of State to prescribe the circumstances in which the procedure requiring an enforcing authority to notify a primary authority of proposed enforcement action shall not apply. I shall provide some examples later, but I think that we can all probably think of examples where action needs to be taken then and there, where it may not be practical to do what is proposed, but I shall come on to that in a moment.
The primary authorities scheme is intended to provide consistency and certainty for businesses operating in a number of local authority areas, but it is also important that that should not be allowed to delay essential and routine action by local authorities where it is appropriate. Our extensive discussions with local authority enforcement officers and their representatives have demonstrated that although it is important that exemptions are made, the complexity and diversity of the underlying regulations dealt with in the Bill mean that secondary legislation is probably the most appropriate way of doing so.
The order-making power of clause 29 will allow for exemptions to be drawn up. That would include exemptions where the enforcement action was required urgently, for example to avoid a significant risk of serious harm to human health or the environment. I am sure that if we found somewhere serving unsafe food we would not want to wait five days, 28 days or whatever may be determined. Other cases might involve the financial interests of consumers—if there is a serious fraud going on, or financial interests are under threat—or where referring the case to the relevant primary authority might be wholly disproportionate.
The order may include, therefore, exemptions where delay would inhibit effective evidence-gathering or investigation of a breach, or where it would be impractical to seek the view of a primary authority when exercising powers—for example, under the Noise Act 1996. If speakers were blaring at 4 am, I do not think that we would want to wait five days. The underlying regulations are deliberately local in nature, and that could be another reason, as for example with many aspects of the Licensing Act 2003, or where the enforcing authority already has to seek approval for its proposed enforcement action from another force—that would meet the purpose of the notification requirement.
We have committed to laying an order under clause 29 as soon as possible after the Bill has come into force. I am happy to repeat that commitment to the hon. Gentleman today. I would also like to take the opportunity to clarify that the primary authorities scheme will not become operational until the exemptions have been drawn up and come into force. That is the context and content of clause 29.