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Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Bill [Lords]

The hon. Gentleman has made an excellent point. Local people expect their own enforcing authorities to be responsible for matters that affect them. As it stands, clause 28 allows one local authority, acting as a primary authority in relation to a particular business, to tell another local authority that it cannot take enforcement action against that business because it considers that the business is acting in accordance with advice given to it by the primary authority. If the council that wishes to prosecute disagrees either with the advice from the primary authority or with the view that the business has followed it properly, its only recourse is to ask the local better regulation office to reconsider the matter. If the LBRO supports the primary authority, that is the end of the matter. Enforcement action may mean a prosecution, or the issuing of a notice requiring the business to make some improvement or halt some practice. The important point is that the business has a right of appeal against such notices to a court. Whether the action is a prosecution or a notice, the principle is the same. At present a court makes the final decision, but under the clause as it stands the court’s role is removed.