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Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill

The noble Baroness asks a simple enough question, but, as with all these things, the question raises many others. First, there is the issue of defining burdens. Clause 1 does that by setting out whether they are financial, administrative, an obstacle to efficiency, productivity or profitability, or a sanction, including criminal sanctions. The definition of ““burden”” is broader than that in the 2001 Act. That is why we decided to amend the 2001 Act. We have managed to achieve things under the 2001 Act, but we want to do more. In that Act, there was a power to reduce or remove a burden defined as a sanction, criminal or otherwise, where it was an integral and appropriate part of reducing the burden on the regulated. A good example of that was the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order, which simplified and rationalised existing fire safety legislation spread over 50 pieces of legislation. By reducing burdens on business in that instance, we saved time caused by the multiplicity of overlapping fire safety regimes that had to be satisfied and the overlap of responsibility for enforcement. There was not just the fire authority and the fire service, but the local authority, together with building control officers, and so on. They all seemed to be working on the same problem. Through this process, we are attempting to achieve a greater coherence and simplification of the process and how it impacts on people. Amendment No. 8 is intended to add to the definition of burdens. Subsection 1(3)(a) provides that burdens which can be removed or reduced by order include financial costs. Amendment No. 8 adds, "““significant quantifiable cost in time””," to that limb of the definition of burdens. I argue that the amendment is unnecessary. The definition of burdens already includes opportunity costs—in other words, the time a business spends complying with a regulation when it could usefully be doing something else. This would count as an obstacle to productivity, which Clause 1(3)(c) already provides for, and is a burden for the purposes of the Bill. Clause 1(3)(c) covers the loss of a financial benefit due to the time spent complying with a regulation. The definition of burden as an administrative inconvenience would also permit the removal or reduction of burdens resulting from legislation that do not actually impose financial costs but do impose administrative burdens, many of which are hard to quantify. This is particularly true of the time that they take, because one cannot be absolutely precise about the nature or the amount of time that an administrative act will take. We sympathise with the spirit of the noble Baroness’s amendment, but we believe it to be unnecessary because in essence it is taken account of in the legislation. The issue is very much at the core of the debate about burdens and regulation, so I congratulate the noble Baroness on tabling the amendment.