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Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Bill [Lords]

I am very grateful to my hon. Friend, who has rightly highlighted the scale of the problem and the fact that the Government anticipate at this point—before the legislation has become law—that roughly half those fines or sanctions will be mis-proven, so the damage will be considerable. We all know how quickly consumers can make the assumption that something is awry. It would be unfair of me to rake over the coals of Northern Rock with Ministers for too long, but we can immediately see that in cases where concern is expressed through the national media, people will naturally fear for themselves and act promptly. In these days of 24-hour news and 15-minute news cycles, the potential problem in the first year—some 14,000 fines or sanctions being issued and half being rescinded later—poses a serious danger. Of course, all that is the reason why businesses of whatever size are concerned. Indeed, I understand that the CBI supports these amendments. It argues in some of its submissions that"““businesses should not face the risk of unsubstantiated damage to their reputation until, and unless, proven guilty””." For some businesses, the risk of loss of reputation is therefore worse than opting for criminal proceedings, in which accusations must be proven and the standard of evidence is significantly higher. Clearly, many businesses will prefer to stick with the civil process, but the point of the amendments, as the hon. Lady said earlier, is to allow a minority who might prefer to use the criminal justice system to opt for that. They might choose to do so because they wish, quite naturally, to have the accusation proven against them rather than assumed, or because they believe that the higher standard of evidence is important. I therefore believe that these amendments would strengthen, rather than weaken, the principles behind the Bill. It is not only the CBI that has expressed a wish to see these amendments tabled. The British Retail Consortium, for example, has throughout the Bill’s passage expressed serious worries about the whole of part 3 and particularly about the sanctions, which it believes are ““unacceptable”” as they stand. Turning to the smallest of businesses, the Forum of Private Business, for example, has said in submissions to this House that as drafted, these sanctions are ““a deal-breaker.”” Given all that and the information provided by the hon. Member for Solihull, these are important improvements to the Bill. Given, too, that these civil sanctions are being introduced so that regulators have a choice, should not the regulated also have a choice as to which system is appropriate?