New Clause 5
Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Bill [Lords]
2:15 pm
Pat McFadden (Minister of State (Employment Relations and Postal Affairs), Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform; Wolverhampton South East, Labour)
To some extent, my difficulty with this new clause is similar to my difficulty with the last one. The primary authority principle tries to give the regulator some sense of clarity and consistency about what to expect. The inspection plans set out in clause 30, which this new clause would replace, are part of doing that. Clause 30(3) gives examples of what could be in an inspection plan, mentioning
“the frequency at which, or circumstances in which, inspections should be carried out;”
and
“what an inspection should consist of”.
The list is not exhaustive and the Government expect inspection plans to include other information such as recommendations, enforcement and information on a wide range of issues relating to a business with which a primary authority has a partnership. The guide to the Bill, which I have referred to several times, includes some of those issues, suggesting details of improvements that a business is undertaking to improve its health and safety procedures, or details of ongoing problems relating to compliance that other local authorities should pay particular regard to. The issues in the new clause can be addressed in the inspection plan in clause 30. LBRO will take the issues raised into account when giving guidance to local authorities on implementing the inspection plans.
I have another point about the hon. Lady’s new clause. I am not sure that what she said was correct. She said that the new clause still required the enforcing authority to have regard to the plan—I am not sure that it does. It removes the key requirement for local authorities to have regard to a registered inspection plan when undertaking inspections and to notify the primary authority before departing from it. This is not only a replacement for the inspection plan; it puts a far lower level of onus on the enforcing authority to pay any heed to it. The Government expect that inspection plans will help to reduce unnecessary business inspections and facilitate knowledge sharing between primary and enforcing authorities. The compliance plan, as set out in the new clause, would not provide for that, because it would break the relationship whereby the enforcing authority has to have regard to the plan. Achieving those aims rests on ensuring that enforcing authorities have regard to an inspection plan and that they inform the primary authority of the reasons that they might depart from such a plan.
The hon. Lady talked about the need for flexibility, which is absolutely right. Of course we need flexibility in dealing with, for example, the problem of selling out-of-date food. That was a fair point. Inspection plans should always allow for the capacity to respond effectively to emergencies or, in particular, local circumstances, and plans will need LBRO sign-off to ensure that they are not unreasonable or totally inflexible. Through the primary authority principle, and the inspection plans in particular, we are trying to promote a relationship that offers consistency to those regulated, and a dialogue between local circumstances and the primary authority. I am afraid that, on those counts, her new clause would take us away from the aims of the Bill, so I hope that she will not press it to a vote.