Clause 48
Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Bill [Lords]
9:15 am
Mark Prisk (Shadow Minister, Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform; Hertford and Stortford, Conservative)
I beg to move amendment No. 56, in clause 48, page 24, line 15, at end insert ‘and any subsequent appeal.’.
The amendment would improve the current wording of subsection (1) of the clause, which is about compensation in relation to stop notices. Subsection (1) states:
“Provision under section 46 conferring power on a regulator to serve a stop notice on a person must include provision for the regulator to compensate the person for loss suffered as the result of the service of the notice.”
We want to insert at the end of that subsection the phrase, “and any subsequent appeal”.
The provision is designed principally to enable small businesses in particular to appeal without fear that they will not be able to recover costs simply because they wanted to challenge the notice in the first place. The Minister agreed in previous debates that no one in the relevant circumstances should be deterred from making representations or appealing—knowing that they would then be out of pocket. It is an important principle, and the Minister agreed to it in a previous debate. I do not want to make this a long debate, so I simply ask the Minister whether he now accepts that principle, and if so, whether he will accept the amendment. It is fair that there should be no circumstances in which someone who wishes to make an appeal is deterred by the fact that they will be out of pocket as a result.