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Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Bill [Lords]

The Minister confirms that. In his letter, he says that each primary authority would set the charges and the LBRO would provide oversight. I welcome that clarification, although I can see the potential for delay before such directions may be forthcoming. In Committee, the Minister also promised to answer my questions about the budgets for first tier tribunals handling the appeals, especially in their first year. Again, he did not have the answer, which came in his letter yesterday; I think that hon. Members who have not had the chance to see it will be interested. He said that each regulatory regime, or first tier tribunal, involved would expect a cost in the region of £100,000. Could he confirm, now or again through correspondence, how many different regulatory regimes the Government anticipate, and therefore the total cost? There will be several different regulatory regimes, but his letter does not tell us how many, so it is unclear whether we are talking about 26—I doubt that, but it would mean costs of £2.6 million—or only two or three. Part 3 was highly controversial when first published because, as we said earlier, it extends the power to fine people to not only one regulator but more than 26. I say that because 26 are named, and then it refers to ““local fisheries committees””. It is unclear whether that means there are 432 or 29. Not only are a notable number of regulators involved, but the fines and sanctions that will be applied will involve 140 other pieces of legislation, each of which are listed in the Bill. The powers granted will allow those regulators to be the investigator, the judge and the jury. Thankfully, the Bill has been significantly amended. There will be, as the Minister has highlighted, an independent appeals process, but as we discussed, that process will occur only after the event. There will be no independent hearing, therefore, in which an accusation will be tested, and in which the guilt will have to be proven before the event. The Minister has given the House quite extensive assurances, both in the debates on amendments Nos. 10 and 12 on Report, and in Committee, that the system will be fair and open. I take him at his word. I simply say to him that we will hold him and any of his successors to that, so that the Government ensure that those promises are fulfilled. We want to monitor closely how the process evolves. As we learned from the excellent identification by my hon. Friend the Member for Wellingborough, some 14,000 sanctions could be involved, half of which the Government expect could be rescinded. This is not a minor matter, but an important one. I recognise the benefits of a streamlined, civil system of sanctions, but we must not lose sight of fairness. I suspect that many small businesses will just pay up, because they do not have either the time or resources to fight. The danger is that we will then see a real sense of injustice, which can undermine the system and the economy. The origin of the Bill was, rightly, in seeking to improve the quality and consistency of regulation and its implementation. Those are good principles, but what is at stake is whether the Bill will achieve them. The process in this House and the other place has improved the Bill, but it remains far from perfect. That is why we have sought to set out our reservations carefully, cautiously and perhaps at greater length than some on the Government Benches may have liked. Equally, no one should forget that this Bill is the third attempt by the Government to tackle regulation. Both of their two previous attempts have failed. After 11 years in office, and more than 35,000 new regulations, Ministers must understand that neither business nor consumers will tolerate a third failure.