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Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Bill [Lords]

I can assure my hon. Friend that the LBRO will want to draw on all relevant expertise in its task. Part 2 establishes a statutory framework to deliver increased certainty and consistency of treatment for businesses that operate across local authority boundaries. By granting these businesses the right to refer a primary authority to inform how that business should be regulated—that is particularly relevant to businesses that operate across a number of local authority areas—part 3 will give regulators access to a suite of more flexible and proportionate civil sanctions to promote better compliance with relevant regulations. That measure has been welcomed by many leading business organisations. Part 4 will bring increased accountability and effectiveness to the way in which regulators work in practice. It is not enough simply to count the number of regulations on the statute book: the way in which regulation works in practice is extremely important for this agenda, and the focus will be on the removal of unnecessary burdens. The measures will better protect the public, boost business confidence and bring increased clarity and consistency to the work of local authorities and national regulators. Together, they will help build a more open, simpler and coherent regulatory enforcement system which is transparent, professional, and proportionate; which does not criminalise inadvertent or minor breaches of regulatory requirements; and which does what my hon. Friend the Member for Stafford (Mr. Kidney) said, and tackles rogue traders more effectively. May I set out in a little more detail what the measures do? Part 1 establishes the LBRO. Local authority professionals play a critical role in the enforcement of UK regulation, and those services are rightly proud of the support and advice that they provide to help businesses comply with the law. For example, Cambridgeshire trading standards has built an award-winning partnership with local businesses that continues dramatically to reduce the sale of age-restricted goods such as alcohol to children. Local authority enforcement officers operate within a complex system, with hundreds of local authorities interpreting and enforcing regulations set by Government Departments and regulators. Part 1 will create a new statutory public corporation—the local better regulation office—to work with all parts of the system to help local authorities carry out their regulatory functions effectively and in line with better regulation principles. We have already established the LBRO as a company, and the Bill will give it statutory form, with the powers and duties that it needs to take its work forward. That includes a power to give guidance to local authorities on better regulation matters, to which those authorities will be required to have regard, as well as a right to advise Ministers and make proposals about the framework that central Government set for the work of local authorities in practice.