My Lords, I forget who it was who said, “Never apologise, never explain”, but I will start with an apology for the sheer size of this SI, which has received some comment—not just at this meeting, but at the meeting I held last week. I am grateful for the comments made by all those who came to that meeting and more widely by others, particularly the concerns of the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee, on which the noble Baroness, Lady Donaghy, and the noble Lord, Lord Rooker, sit. I also discussed that with the chairman of that committee, the noble Lord, Lord Cunningham. I know he has also had correspondence with my honourable friend Kelly Tolhurst, who has ministerial responsibility for these matters within the department, and with my right honourable friend the Secretary of State.
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I hope that we have made some progress in explaining why we thought it necessary to have such a large SI, with the measures being dealt with together rather than being laid separately, as the noble Baroness, Lady Burt, suggested. One can argue it both ways. I think that it helps. It might have created something of a joke for those dealing with the vast number of no-deal SIs, and I am the unfortunate person who happens to be in the department with the largest number. However, the noble Baroness, Lady Burt, emphasises that she too is unfortunate, and that is true also of those on the committee who had to scrutinise the SI. However, I think that in the end it was the right decision. The noble Baroness, Lady Burt, talked about organisations being daunted by the sheer size of it. I hope that setting out all the legal requirements makes it easier for them, and we are working on a very extensive package of guidance, which will provide clarity for businesses, market surveillance authorities and consumers.
The noble Baroness, Lady Crawley, said that she would have liked to see a little more about consultation. I appreciate that we produced a draft SI and then had
to produce another one as there were some small changes, but they were small changes in a very large SI. We invited stakeholders to review the draft SI and shared it with them via reading rooms and in face-to-face meetings. I think that stakeholders were supportive of being engaged with in this way and felt reassured by that approach. In addition, their feedback enabled us to make some drafting amendments where appropriate.
We have continued to keep in touch with stakeholders and have updated them via email or in one-to-one meetings. We have attended a number of industry events to discuss the implications of no deal, including an event with the cosmetics association, the British Toy & Hobby Association and the British Retail Consortium, and there will be upcoming events with techUK. Therefore, we have had contact with as many organisations as possible and I hope that that regular contact has been of use to them. Certainly, we have not had any complaints from the various bodies involved.