REGULATORY ENFORCEMENT AND SANCTIONS BILL

The purpose of the bill is to:

• Further advance the Government's policy on better regulation by establishing the Local Better Regulation Office (LBR)) as a statutory corporatation;
• Provide a framework for a range of alternative administrative sanctions for regulatory non-compliance.
  

The main benefits of the bill are:

• Reduce unnecessary burdens imposed on business by local authority regulatory services by promoting consistent, proportionate, effective and risk based enforcement by trading standards and environmental health services;
• Enable regulators to access a set of alternative administrative sanctions which will supplement and reinforce existing powers so that regulators have at their disposal a full range of sanctions;

The main elements of the bill are:

• To establish the Local Better Regulation Office as a statutory corporation and to confer on it five key functions:
• Issuing guidance to local authorities;
• Supporting best practice by local authorities;
• Giving advice to Ministers;
• Reviewing and updating the Government's list of national regulatory priorities; and,
• Promoting consistent regulatory enforcement by local authorities.
• Deliver some of the recommendations of the Macrory Review by providing fro expanded regulatory sanctioning powers;

The Bill was published in draft on 15 May and is currently out for public consultation.  This consultation closes on 15 August and a Government response will be issued by 28 September 2007.

The Bill would apply to:

• The LBRO provisions in Part 1 of the draft Bill, as published on 15 May 2007, apply to England and Wales only. The Macrory provisions in Part 2 extend to England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland but are of restricted application in respect of devolved matters. The Government is in discussion with all of the devolved administrations as to how the provisions of the Bill will apply to them.

Related Documents:

• Philip Hamptons report:  Reducing Administrative Burdens:  Effective inspection and enforcement
• Pre-Budget Report 2005
• Pre-Budget Report 2006
• Prof Richard Macrory:  Regulatory Justice:  Making Sanctions Effective (Nov 2006).

Existing Legislation in this area is:

• There is no directly linked legislation

Comments:

If you have any comments on the draft programme or individual bill being proposed, you can email them to:

legislation@commonsleader.x.gsi.gov.uk