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Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Bill [HL]

I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Cope, because this is an interesting and perhaps difficult area. We agree that local authority regulators—and, for that matter, all regulators, whether local authority or otherwise—should publicise the details of their civil enforcement activity. That would lead to greater transparency and could prove to be a useful tool in encouraging compliance from those keen to maintain their public reputation. We very much take the noble Lord’s point about how publicity affects some more than others, in the same way that penalties affect some more than others. Publicising details of enforcement actions was a recommendation of the Macrory review. Amendment No. 179A, which we shall come to later, replicates the wording of Macrory’s recommendation that regulators should publish details of all enforcement actions, including criminal prosecutions. This recommendation formed part of a wider discussion on improving the transparency and accountability of regulators. The Government accepted all Professor Macrory’s recommendations and it is agreed government policy to improve the transparency and accountability of regulators. We therefore have some sympathy with the amendment, although the noble Lord will forgive me if I say that we do not accept the precise drafting. If he will withdraw the amendment, we will consider it further and return to this issue on Report.