Clause 30
Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Bill [Lords]
4:30 pm
Pat McFadden (Minister of State (Employment Relations and Postal Affairs), Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform; Wolverhampton South East, Labour)
Subsection 3 of the clause refers to frequency and circumstances, and what an inspection should consist of. We have not been more prescriptive than that in the clause. The hon. Gentleman is right to say that an enforcing authority may decide that an inspection is needed even if—to continue his metaphor—the bus is not due; it would be expected to inform the primary authority, but we are not so rigid as to say that an inspection in those circumstances should be banned. In fact there may be good reasons why it has to take place; we touched on those in our debate on the previous clause. Overall, an inspection plan would help to give clarity, both to local authorities and to businesses. There may be exceptions to the plan but at least having it will give business some idea of what is expected of them and how frequently to expect inspections.