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Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Bill [HL]

My Lords, I accept the enormous amount of work that the noble Viscount has put into researching this, no doubt more work than I have put in. The advice that I have received is that the Food Standards Agency is a good precedent for what we are intending here. It may not be absolutely on all fours, precedents rarely are, but it gives that agency the power to direct local authorities. That is precisely what we are seeking for the LBRO here. It is a backup power with all that that is intended to mean. One difference the other way is that the Food Standards Agency only needs to consult the Secretary of State. Here if the LBRO is to direct any local authority, it has to have the prior consent of the Secretary of State himself or herself.