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Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill

My Lords, I have more faith in the parliamentary process than the noble Earl clearly does. The provisions are there to be taken account of and to be put into effect. It is worth my reinforcing the point that these orders can be of benefit to regulators. I referred in Committee to a consultation on a regulatory reform order to relax the consultation requirements imposed on the Financial Services Authority by the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. This was referred to. I cite one example—we have not spent a lot of time digging out others—where this was of benefit to the regulator. If these benefits exist, why should we preclude them from being obtained through the use of orders under the legislation and the protections that we have outlined? As I said in Committee, the economic regulators operate not in a stagnant environment but in an ever-changing and diverse one, and they need to be flexible and responsive to the challenges presented by the markets in which they operate. The House will be more than aware, in this age of climate change, of the growth of energy self-sufficiency and the attendant growth of the microgenerator industry. In a press release issued on 20 January 2006, Ofgem said: "““An increased interest in the connection of domestic-scale microgeneration equipment has raised a number of issues that may require a regulatory response, either now or as the penetration of microgeneration increases””." Following a consultation on this issue, Ofgem says in its Next Steps document of October 2006 that it is: "““working to ensure that obstacles to development of microgeneration are identified and addressed, and that, where appropriate, we work with government to ensure that any support is well-designed and works with the competitive market framework.””" I am saying not that orders under the Bill are the solution for dealing with those issues, although they might be, but that this example demonstrates the evolving nature of regulation and that this House should not prevent the economic regulators or any other regulator proposing that Ministers use the order-making powers in Part 1 to their own benefit, or indeed to the benefit of those whom they regulate. I should also like to add that discussions between Better Regulation Executive officials and the economic regulators have revealed that economic regulators are content not to have a total exclusion from the Bill and that they are exploring the opportunities that the Bill might present. Given the potential better regulation benefits for the economic regulators and those they regulate, the stringent safeguards in Part 1 and the fact that the 2001 Act has not led to an environment of uncertainty in the markets in which these regulators operate, I urge the noble Baroness, Lady Wilcox, to withdraw her amendment. Finally, I shall pick up on one or two points raised during the debate. As regards the fact that the RRC and the DPRRC are not whipped, committees of this House and another place have a statutory right to veto. Whether that could be used to dispense with the services of the chair of any regulator was again raised. It is difficult to see how provisions in this Bill would fall within the vires of the order-making powers in Part 1, although the provision to sack a chairman would fall within the vires of the order-making powers of this Bill. There are currently statutory restrictions on the situation in which the relevant Secretary of State can remove the chair of a regulator. It is difficult to see that existing legislation results in a burden of the sort defined in the Bill. Even if it did, if the burden results only for the Secretary of State, Clause 1(4) rules out an order-making provision to remove or reduce that burden. We are faced with a situation where, in order to protect and ensure that we have independent regulators, we are precluding a benefit taking place because we are failing to recognise the safeguards that this legislation provides, which are substantial and significant.