Clause 46
Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Bill [Lords]
9:00 am
Pat McFadden (Minister of State (Employment Relations and Postal Affairs), Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform; Wolverhampton South East, Labour)
We have made fairly brisk progress so far. Let us see what today holds for us.
When we adjourned the other day, we were in the midst of discussing part 3 and had completed our debates on clause 45. Part 3 offers a new range of options to regulators as alternatives to criminal prosecution in order to ensure compliance. One important option, set out in clause 46, is the stop notice.
The stop notice would apply to situations in which there was an ongoing dangerous activity—for example, the leak of hazardous material on to land or water or in a factory. In such situations, the regulator would have to do exactly what it says on the tin and say stop. A stop notice would prohibit a business from carrying on the activity specified in the notice, and the notice would remain in place until the person had taken the steps specified in it.
Subsections (4) to (6) give the grounds for issuing a stop notice. They state that the notice may be issued only if the activity
“is causing, or presents a significant risk of causing, serious harm to...human health...the environment...including the health of animals”—
or the “financial interests of consumers”. The regulator must also “reasonably” believe that the activity as carried on by the business
“involves or is likely to involve the commission of a relevant offence”.
The provisions are important because they also allow the regulator to impose a notice when an offence has already been committed and if an offence is likely to happen. The Government believe that in certain circumstances a regulator should be able to issue a stop notice to prevent an offence from occurring if there is a risk to the public or the environment. Indeed, it would seem odd to instruct regulators to sit back and wait if they believed that that could happen.
Subsection (7) ensures that the steps specified to be taken in the notice must be limited to compliance steps. Given the sometimes onerous nature of stop notices we feel that it would be inappropriate to allow regulators to include broader steps in the notice.