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Animal Welfare Bill

moved Amendment No. 47:"Page 7, line 41, at end insert—" ““(   )   The recipient of an improvement notice may, within 21 days of its issue, lodge with the inspector’s appointing authority a statement of the provisions that he feels are unreasonable; and such a statement will not preclude attempts to meet those provisions but may be taken into account at any subsequent court proceedings.”” The noble Baroness said: Clause 10 deals with improvement notices. With the leave of the Committee, on behalf of the noble Lord, Lord Soulsby of Swaffham Prior, I shall speak to Amendment No. 48 as well. Clause 48 defines ““inspectors””. It includes a subsection that protects an inspector from legal proceedings against acts that the court is satisfied were done in good faith and were based on reasonable grounds. We support the concept of improvement notices and consider that they will be an important part of any inspector’s armoury. We feel, however, that if the inspector is to be indemnified against court claims, there should be a balancing right for anyone in receipt of an improvement notice to enter a plea against its severity, cost or timeframe. We do not believe that the plea should interfere with the execution of the improvement notice but it should be drawn to the attention of the court in any later proceedings. We also consider that appointing authorities should not be placed in the position of having to take court action for failure to comply with an improvement notice only to find that the court agrees with the defendant that it was overly stringent or otherwise unreasonable. The receipt of a statement laying out provisions that are felt to be unreasonable should act as a warning to the authority. Equally, the absence of such a statement may be considered by the court as tacit acceptance of the reasonableness of an improvement notice. The amendment provides an important right to respond to unreasonable demands in an improvement notice and for these to be taken into account by a court. It may also serve an important function in preventing perhaps over-zealous inspectors setting limits on what is or is not reasonable. My noble friend Lord Soulsby of Swaffham Prior wanted to add a provision to this part of the Bill stating that it would be an offence to fail to comply with an improvement notice. I beg to move.