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Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Bill [Lords]

Aha! We are talking about the regulation of business, and one of the annoying things that happens is that businesses receive documents from the Government, from regulators and from local authorities, sometimes undated, always without the name of the sender, and signed with a squiggle. And that is exactly what we have got from the Government today, on the very provision that they are using to try to reduce regulation. I guess that this is because the Minister does not really want to be associated with a Bill that is actually indefensible. The Bill will set up what the Government call—let me get this right—the local better regulation office. My goodness me! Could they not have thought of a better title than that? Perhaps something like the department of administrative affairs, or, more accurately, the ““Yes Minister”” department would have been a much better title and people would have understood what we were trying to do in the House today. The Government are trying to reduce regulation, red tape and costs to business by setting up a super-regulatory department. We are going to create regulators and bureaucrats to regulate and administer other bureaucrats. This is straight out of ““Yes Minister””. The Government might say, ““Oh, this is only a small thing. Don’t worry about it.”” However, the new office will have a staff of 25 and a budget of £4.5 million. That is less than one regulator for every regulator that the Government want to regulate; and £4.5 million a year for a staff of 25 works out at £180,000 per person. That sounds like a pretty good salary for those involved. Unfortunately, the Minister was unable to tell us what the chief executive of this new organisation was to be paid. I am absolutely assured of one thing: if this new department goes ahead—if this ““Yes Ministry”” is established—the first thing it will look at will not be better regulation but expanding its empire, taking on more people and costing more money. That is what Government Departments do.