Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill

We looked specifically at the history of the then 27 orders that had been dealt with and, with the limited information we had, tried to ascertain why delays occurred in some Departments. We found that we could report on the facts of a delay, but that we could not investigate the reasons, so if it is the will of the House I should like the opportunity for my Committee to act like a normal Select Committee and inquire into the workings of a Department by, for example, periodically inviting its Secretary of State to answer questions. The sunset clause proposed by the hon. Member for Forest of Dean would take us back a long way. The Better Regulation Executive produced a paper, ““A Bill for Better regulation: Consultation Document””, which acknowledged that the powers in the Regulatory Reform Act 2001 are ““constitutionally ground-breaking””, noted that the review had ““identified many positive aspects”” in the process and described where further improvements could be made. The danger of introducing a sunset clause is that we could throw the baby out with the bathwater. I have some sympathy with the hon. Gentleman’s suggestion that there should be a review of the process—indeed, of all legislation.