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Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Bill [HL]

My Lords, I must confess to being somewhat procedurally confused. On Amendment No. 59, as we stated in Committee, we agree with the noble and learned Lord that when imposing a sanction a regulator must provide the person subject to the sanction with the evidence that has been used to determine liability. This is a basic requirement if a person is going to be able to defend himself. However, we still do not feel that this amendment is necessary to ensure that evidence is provided and it could, in fact, be limiting. Regulators are already required to provide all relevant evidence to the person in question, in accordance with principles of good administration, common law principles of fairness and duties under human rights law. It is therefore not necessary specifically to state this requirement. These amendments address technical matters of how and when relevant evidence should be provided to persons subject to a sanction and would be better left to the order as it would allow further detailed provision to be made. Furthermore, while we may agree with the sentiment behind Amendments Nos. 59 and, as it happens, 66, it may stop the use of other, more transparent, means of providing evidence to persons subject to a sanction. For example, instead of providing all the relevant material in the notice of intent itself, as suggested by the amendment, the regulator could instead provide full access to its investigation files. Some regulators, such as the OFT in competition law investigations that are comparable to the civil sanctioning regime, use this means of providing all the relevant material to persons subject to regulatory sanctions. In certain cases this could be a more efficient means of providing information to benefit both the parties rather than the more onerous requirement to state all of the facts and matters in the notice of intent itself. I am sure that, on this basis, the noble and learned Lord would not wish to have these unintended consequences given that the requirement already exists in law.