Clause 65
Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Bill [Lords]
10:15 am
David Kidney (PPS (Rt Hon Rosie Winterton, Minister of State), Department for Transport; Stafford, Labour)
I apologise for missing the fact that the relevant authority is the Minister; my hon. Friend is quite right. In the kind of case that he described, it is perfectly understandable that a Minister might want to direct that such information should not be published—certainly information such as people’s names, addresses and so on. Does my hon. Friend agree that that would happen in exceptional situations rather than simply inappropriate ones? Will he reflect that “inappropriate” is quite a wide test for the power, and that something such as “exceptional circumstances” would be more narrowly focused?