My Lords, I thank all noble Lords who took part in this preliminary and important debate on the Bill.
The noble Lord, Lord Patel, made an important point concerning primary legislation after three years. The Minister seemed to suggest that three years is not long enough. That cannot be right; three years is certainly long enough. Without the principles and policy that my noble friend Lord Hunt spoke about, rule by regulation is not only inadequate but probably quite dangerous. That lies at the heart of this group of amendments.
The noble Lord, Lord Kakkar, made the important point that we have a well-designed regulatory framework in the UK; this amendment is not about disrupting that. He also said that the Bill should be about improving the framework; that is exactly right.
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I thank the noble Lord, Lord Lansley, for ordering the amendments in the correct way. I think he is right—it is a case of us not looking carefully enough. I say to him and the Minister that they seem to disregard the fact that we have had two very pungent reports from our two committees that look at legislation and upon which we depend. They have been very clear about the things they thought needed to be improved in this legislation.
This is a preliminary skirmish around this issue. I am very grateful for the support of the noble Lord, Lord O’Shaughnessy, who probably bears the scars of ignoring these committees most recently. It is very nice to see him realise that parliamentary scrutiny is important.
I am slightly disconcerted by the Minister saying that he has engaged extensively on this issue because I do not feel convinced by that; however, I am very happy that we will engage extensively because we will need to. We certainly welcome any discussions that the Minister and Bill team wish to have with us.
I would like the Minister to think carefully about the lack of policy in this area. What is going to happen at the end of this month is not news to anybody—we have known about it for a very long time. In return, I will certainly look more carefully at the Bill and see whether we need to be more pointed about which areas we particularly want to sunset, if that is possible.
I think we have made some progress with this debate. We have certainly laid out the landscape which we have to navigate over the next few weeks, and on that basis I beg leave to withdraw the amendment.