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Violent Crime Reduction Bill

I support my noble friend. This is another test of whether the Government are serious about deregulation. My noble friend has made it perfectly clear that he is seeking not to frustrate the intention of the Bill but to make its administrative burden more acceptable. The Government are always talking about deregulation. Sir David Arculus’s group in the Cabinet Office has reported on it. The European Commission has sought a 25 per cent reduction of all EU regulations by 2010. Even the new German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, has endorsed that objective. If the Government come out in favour of something like my noble friend’s amendment, they will, by a simple example, show that they are not merely a government of adjectives.