---

Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Bill [HL]

If they make a mistake, as can happen with any notice of intent, the regulator party has a defence, because the matter has not properly been brought forward for the civil sanction. It may be that the local authority can put right its mistake, depending on the time limits involved, but a bad notice of intent remains a bad notice of intent. The noble Viscount will know much better than me that that can fatally damage a course of action that the local authority wants to take. He said earlier that this imposes too high a burden on the local authority to get the matter right in each case. I would argue that it does not. We are talking here about discretionary penalties that may hit businesses particularly hard. There may be good reasons why they should hit businesses hard, but anyone who is going to do that should make sure beforehand that everything is in order and done according to law. That is why we do not resile from the tough conditions set out in Clause 41.