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Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Bill [HL]

Amendment No. 111A is in this group. It is a drafting amendment to ensure consistency within the Bill and that the sanctions it suggests will be in line with current legislation. Many new pieces of legislation come from Europe and are enacted through the European Communities Act 1972. Provision is made in Clause 4(3) for relevant functions in Part 1 of the Act. Clause 22(1)(a) uses the same definition. However, no such consideration is given to the Part 3 sanctions available. Instead, a definitive list is provided in Schedule 6. The European Communities Act, which is key legislation, is absent from the list. The list in Schedule 6 covers the Trade Descriptions Act 1968, which is vital legislation for protecting both consumers and business. That will be repealed and replaced when the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive is implemented by the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations in April this year. Without provision in the Bill for such legislation, the sanctions will not apply to this new legislation, which is anticipated both in the UK and Europe as a step forward in providing the consumer protection regime that citizens deserve. It may be that the amendment would have been better worded to amend Clause 36 to follow the same format as Clause 4: "““Page 15, after line 12, insert—""‘(c) includes any enactment made under Section 2(2) of the European Communities Act 1972’””." The Bill team have indicated that they do not wish to include the European Communities Act in Schedule 6, as they believe that there is provision in the ECA to create an order to add the Part 3 powers from the Bill to the new legislation. If this is the case, and the Minister is not of a mind to accept the amendment, will he give a commitment to ensure that the necessary steps are taken to include provision for the Part 3 sanctions to be available for the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations in April 2008?