Clause 72
Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Bill [Lords]
1:15 pm
Pat McFadden (Minister of State (Employment Relations and Postal Affairs), Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform; Wolverhampton South East, Labour)
The clause brings us to part 4 of the Bill. To use a lay term, I would summarise part 4 by saying that it is related to an aspect of the job description of regulators. This part of the Bill was significantly improved as a result of discussion and amendment in the other place and it gives us two important clauses, beginning with clause 72. I am sure that we would all agree that part of the job description of regulators—not the whole of it—should be, as the clause states, that they exercise their functions in a manner that does not impose unnecessary burdens or maintain burdens that the regulator considers to have become unnecessary. The point about the regulator making the judgment is one of the changes that have been made as we have moved along the line in debating the clause.
In overview, the clause is about helping to ensure that regulators do not impose or maintain unnecessary burdens. Subsection (2) provides that where the duty has been imposed, unnecessary burdens need not be removed where it would be impracticable or disproportionate to do so. The sense of proportion is important because it is something that has been added. We could find a situation where a burden had been identified by a regulator as being unnecessary but the act of removing it would be completely disproportionate to the burden that it was placing on the regulated bodies. Subsection (2) allows that question of proportion to be taken into account.
In following this duty, the Government do not intend that regulators should divert resources from their core functions in a way that compromises their effectiveness. As I said, this is part of the job description of regulators; it is not in any sense the whole job description. In considering unnecessary burdens, we expect that regulators should be able to target their resources more effectively, therefore enhancing regulatory outcomes. Subsections (3) to (6) require a regulator to whom the duty has been applied to publish a statement as soon as is reasonably practicable, setting out what they propose to do in the following 12 months. Statements must then be published annually, so the clause asks regulators to keep a constant eye on the question of unnecessary burdens. That is important because in the regulatory field we often talk about the need for a culture change, and the provision whereby the issue will be considered annually is intended to embed that approach.