Legislative Reform (Health and Safety Executive) Order 2008

rose to move, That the Grand Committee do report to the House that it has considered the Legislative Reform (Health and Safety Executive) Order 2008. The noble Lord said: The draft Legislative Reform (Health and Safety Executive) Order 2008 was laid before the House by the Department for Work and Pensions on 18 February. The order amends the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 to consolidate the Health and Safety Commission and Health and Safety Executive into one statutory body. The proposal to create a unitary body originated from the Health and Safety Commission and the current Health and Safety Executive themselves, and has the agreement of the Department for Work and Pensions. It aims to merge the two current statutory health and safety bodies into a unified governing body to improve clarity in promoting the cause of better health and safety at work. Further aims are to improve communication, accountability and strategic oversight, and to provide a better challenge function to management. The Health and Safety Commission and the current Health and Safety Executive were established under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, following the 1972 report of the Robens commission, which recommended that there be a single governing body. However, the then Government opted for a two-tier structure in which the Health and Safety Commission would exercise strategic control of the Health and Safety Executive and of local authorities in their performance of health and safety functions. The Health and Safety Commission takes policy decisions on health and safety, advises Ministers and secures compliance through the Health and Safety Executive and local authorities. Its duties include proposing regulations, approving codes of practice, giving broad direction to investigations and inquiries, arranging for the provision of information services and conducting research. The Health and Safety Executive is the operating arm for the Health and Safety Commission. It prepares proposals for the commission, makes recommendations and carries out the commission's decisions. The current governance structure is outdated. The existence of two separate bodies remains confusing in that it reduces the impact of important communications, and there is insufficient opportunity for non-executive input into the work of the Health and Safety Executive. In making improvements to tackle these issues, we will abolish the two existing bodies, the Health and Safety Commission and the executive, and will create a single new body called the Health and Safety Executive, retaining a well known and much respected name. Article 2 of the draft order abolishes the two existing Crown non-departmental public bodies. Article 4 of, and Schedule 1 to, the order create the new body, which will also be a Crown NDPB. Article 5 has the effect of transferring the functions, including regulatory functions, and the powers of the abolished bodies to the new entity. All other provisions of the order are consequential, incidental or transitional. During the consultation process, it was proposed that a formal statement specifying the precise terms in which the board of the new executive will delegate its powers on enforcement issues to officials be published in advance of the new arrangements coming into effect. That statement has now been agreed by the commission, and will be made available in public before the merger comes into effect, as part of a wider authorisation covering the delegation of functions. The order now requires such authorisations to be published. This approach is one of four amendments made in light of the ministerial consultation exercise. We have also specifically deleted, from the executive’s power to authorise the exercise of its powers by other persons, the possibility of authorising any person to legislate by subordinate instrument. We are not proceeding with the removal of a provision relating to withholding all or parts of reports produced in relation to investigations or inquiries. This is because reports are already subject to the Freedom of Information Act, and removal of the current provision could create inconsistency. The commission and the executive adopted the principle of better regulation many years ago, and the proposal was to underwrite that position legally. However, during consultation, it came to our attention that the introduction of the proposal may duplicate the introduction of a general requirement on all regulatory bodies to abide by such principles. This is to be brought in by a new order, the Legislative and Regulatory Reform (Regulatory Function) Order 2007, which comes into effect on 6 April 2008. Accordingly, such principles will be incorporated into the working practices of the executive. The Legislative Reform (Health and Safety Executive) Order is laid under the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Act 2006, which allows legislative reform orders to be made either under Section 1 to remove or reduce a legislative burden or under Section 2 to promote regulatory principles of transparency, accountability, proportionality, consistency and targeting. Within certain parameters, Section 2 expressly covers transfers of regulatory functions between bodies in order to promote principles of better regulation. The Department for Work and Pensions has proposed that the draft order be made under Section 2. The draft order is the first legislative reform order to be made under that section. The relevant tests in the 2006 Act for an order submitted under Section 2 are as follows. The first test is that there has been proper consultation on the proposal, which is Section 13. Two consultation exercises were carried out on the merger of the Health and Safety Commission and the Health and Safety Executive. Both showed overwhelming stakeholder support for a merger. The second test is that the conditions of Section 2 are met: that is, that the order serves the purpose of securing the exercise of regulatory functions in compliance with the principles of transparency, accountability, proportionality, consistency and targeting. The third test is that various conditions in Section 3(2) are met. These are: the policy objective intended to be secured by the provision could not be satisfactorily secured by non-legislative means; the effect of the provision is proportionate to the policy objective; the provision, taken as a whole, strikes a fair balance between the public interest and the interests of any person adversely affected by it; the provision does not remove any necessary protection; the provision does not prevent any person from continuing to exercise any right or freedom which that person might reasonably expect to continue to exercise; and the provision is not of constitutional significance. The order was considered by the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee on 12 March. The committee considered that the draft order met the tests in the 2006 Act: that it is not otherwise inappropriate to be made by delegated legislation; and that it meets the tests applied to other instruments by the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments. The 2006 Act allows the Government to propose the negative, affirmative or super-affirmative procedure for each legislative reform order, with Parliament allowed to upgrade the procedure if it so wishes within 30 days from the date on which the instrument was laid. The Government proposed the affirmative procedure for this draft order, and the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee considered that this was not inappropriate. This is an important order which when implemented will provide a more robust governance framework, improve working practices and create a stronger voice for health and safety in Great Britain. I commend it to the Committee and beg to move. Moved, That the Grand Committee do report to the House that it has considered the Legislative Reform (Health and Safety Executive) Order 2008. 6th report from the Regulatory Reform Committee.—(Lord McKenzie of Luton.)