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Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill

I apologise to the noble Lord; I did not deal with those amendments in detail. They would have the effect that an order could not abolish an offence which is punishable, on conviction, by a prison term of more than two years. This is possible under the 2001 Act, and this is a power which we would like to be retained under the Bill. The relevant amendment is closely linked to Clause 7, which places a limitation on the order-making powers in Part 1. It sets the maximum criminal penalties both for any new offence that an order creates, or for any existing offence where an order increases the penalty. Clause 7 maintains the limits in the 2001 Act. The limits in Clause 7 are the same as those in the European Communities Act 1972 and have been taken over from the 2001 Act. In each of those cases, however, they relate to the creation of new offences, not the abolition or reduction of existing penalties. A number of regulatory regimes have systems in which sanctions for non-compliance exceed two years or a fine exceeding level 5 on the standard scale. Health and safety and environmental legislation are two good examples. It would be arbitrary not to allow Ministers by order to propose a reduction of those sanctions if it is considered by the Minister and the parliamentary committees that it would be more appropriate and targeted to do so. The amendment is not necessary for the following reasons: the provisions in Clause 7 have been carried over and, it can be fairly argued, have worked well; the provisions in the 2001 Act have not been abused and any order must meet the preconditions in Clause 4 that I have described; and the parliamentary committees will have a statutory power to veto. For those reasons, we invite the noble Lord not to press those amendments.