Part of Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Bill [Lords] – in a Public Bill Committee at 4:00 pm on 17 June 2008.
I am grateful to the Minister for those initial remarks. As the Minister says, the clause sets out the advice and guidance elements of primary authorities, in particular their role to advise and guide regulated persons as well as other local authorities through the regulations set out in the schedules of the Bill. The Government’s explanatory notes shed a bit more light on the matter. They show that that would mean that a regulated person in the primary authority should make agreements “as they see fit”. That could raise the vexed question of how to strike a balance between improving regulatory practice to lower the regulatory burden on the one hand and ensuring consistency on the other. The Bill is trying to straddle that classic balance between achieving consistency and raising standards individually. What principles does the Minister think that the LBRO will follow to ensure that one business does not gain over its competitors from a less regulatory environment, and if an enforcing local authority fails to follow a primary authority’s guidance, what legal responsibility does it have to the business involved?