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Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill

I rise to reinforce the point made by my noble friend and to express sympathy with the argument advanced by the noble Lord, Lord Goodhart, of which I see the force. However, I agree with my noble friend Lord Jenkin about the words in parenthesis in particular, as they confuse the picture. My noble friend’s argument is that saying legislation is hard to understand renders the subsection itself hard to understand. But I am concerned about who finds it hard to understand. The relevant words may inject almost an element of mischief by inciting people to claim that something is difficult to understand as a way of avoiding a burden that may be placed on them. The measure creates more problems than it solves. Certainly, the words in parenthesis should come out, but I agree with my noble friend Lord Jenkin that not too much would be lost if the whole of subsection (5) came out of the clause.