---

Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Bill [Lords]

I was both listening carefully to my hon. Friend and watching Mr. Deputy Speaker during his intervention. My hon. Friend is absolutely right that we have to listen carefully and take note. He is a doughty campaigner on such matters, and we should jealously protect and guard the primacy of this Parliament. On civil sanctions, the Minister needs to tell us how he would answer the CBI's request for there to be an independent review before a penalty is issued. Business needs to know that the process will be fair, and that if it feels that it is being treated unfairly, it will have a chance to have its side heard—and not by the person who assessed it in the first place, or who would judge or pass sentence on it. There is a range of such issues, and there are more detailed questions as well. For example, how will the process work? Will there be cautions before fines are imposed? How many cautions will there be? What sort of offences will be covered—minor or more serious infringements? When our constituents get a penalty notice because they stayed a couple of minutes too long at a parking meter, that causes profound aggravation—they see it as an enormous extension of the state and an intrusion into their lives. Although sanctions can play an important part in regulation, we need to know that they are being used properly. There is a range of questions about the Bill. It is not a bad Bill; it has a lot of good elements and is moving in the right direction. However, the devil will be in the detail. We are not opposing it on Second Reading, but we will be studying it extremely carefully in Committee, because significant changes need to be made. We will be addressing those issues in Committee to decide whether we can support it further.