I thank my noble friend Lord O’Neill for that useful intervention. There are academic studies on the culture of late payments which demonstrate that massive, punitive fines work best; regulation and legislation are better; and it is impossible to calculate the cultural impact of general provisions to inform and educate without a sense of what the consequence is, and in the absence of a public information campaign. In the same way, if you wish to encourage people not to do something, such as taking risks with fireworks, the case for a public information campaign is clear. I get the point about culture. We are saying that the
greater the number of effective measures to manage behaviour, the better the cultural change will be. We can argue about where we are on the spectrum, but that argument will play a significant part later on.
We understand what the Government are trying to do with the UK model, but that model will have inevitable flaws and there will be constant questioning about what it does. As the Minister rightly said, there were other measures and this is the safe harbour so that information can also be provided. There was not an adequate vehicle to send reports to and now there is. I suspect that, over time, it might be convenient for reports on other things to be sent to it too. I get that, but we are actually hoping that you will extend the role. It is very nice to be described as charming, but I hope that the power of our arguments, and those from other distinguished noble Lords present, will have an impact and help the Minister understand that our idea is to do more. There are concrete measures which can do this. The Government’s proposal underplays it and does not provide the right sort of challenge and opportunity.
The noble Lord, Lord Cope of Berkeley, made a comment about allowing the deputy commissioner to be appointed by the Secretary of State. I suggest that our drafting was exceptionally wise and provided for a bit of give and take. If we were to remove everything from the Secretary of State we should at least give him something to feel comfortable with. We have continued to exercise a sense of to and fro and compromise with the Government on this. I suspect it was more an oversight and an error, but I would be happier for it to be seen in the first light than the second. These are significant issues which we will probably wish to return to on Report. I beg leave to withdraw the amendment.