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Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill

My hon. Friend makes a sound point. There must be a culture in Departments whereby that is a priority—a point made with great force yesterday by my hon. Friend the Member for Ellesmere Port and Neston. New clause 7 is a sunset clause. It would be inappropriate at this moment to set an arbitrary date for the expiry of part 1 of the Bill. Such a sunset clause would set a date on which the Act would certainly come to an end. The safeguards in the Bill and the rigorous parliamentary scrutiny that any proposal will undergo are robust. It would not be wise for us to introduce the uncertainty that a sunset provision would bring—although I am sure that we all relish the thought of going through this process again in five years.