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Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill

Perhaps I may help the noble Lord, Lord Peyton. It is not the forces of darkness that would be unleashed on Her Majesty’s Government. I know that my noble friend is an ardent admirer of the European Union and all things European, but it is, in fact, the working at heights directive which would be unleashed on the Government. My noble friend may not know that this makes it illegal to climb a ladder, unless one has someone else holding the bottom of it, for more than two metres—I am afraid that is the expression rather than ““six feet””. It is in the same category as what is loosely referred to as the toys directive, which makes it an offence nowadays to sell a rocking horse which bears a child more than two foot six—or whatever that is in metres—from the ground. So I am afraid the Government are fighting a bigger animal than anything we may decide in this Chamber.