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Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Bill [Lords]

As my hon. Friend the Minister made clear in his opening remarks, the Bill is motivated by the work of Philip Hampton, who, in his 2005 report, ““Reducing Administrative Burdens””, identified two major and costly problems with the enforcement of regulation. He found, first, inconsistencies in the way in which businesses were treated by local authority regulatory services and, secondly, inflexibility in an enforcement regime that gives regulators the choice of pursuing offenders only through costly criminal prosecution or informal advice regardless of the scale of the offence, preventing a proportionate response. The Bill will deal with both those issues and fundamentally improve the way in which regulation is enforced. As my hon. Friend also made clear, we have listened to concerns raised in the consultation process that we have undertaken and in the other House, and we have amended the Bill.