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Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill

I am grateful to the noble Lord for that clarification of what noble Lords opposite are after. I commit myself to sharing with the Committee what information we have. But the noble Lord has missed an important point: our intervention at an early stage can prevent a lot of the unnecessary adoption of regulations and can make those who are seeking a regulation think long and hard about what they are achieving. We want open markets—that is what the single European market is about—and the benefits of European trade, and if practical measures can be taken to head off an ill considered proposal that might find its way into our legislation, that seems entirely sensible because we will have negated the need to go through another costly, time-consuming and unnecessary process. I heard what the noble Lord said about that in slightly derogatory terms, but when he reflects further on it he may think that it demonstrates a degree of diligence by the Government in paying close attention to those things. If we did not, he would be equally critical. I hope that the noble Lord, Lord Tebbit, will feel able to withdraw his amendment this afternoon, inviting though it might be to some of your Lordships.