Member

A number of the amendments address the general issue of cost to businesses and organisations. The noble Lord, Lord Murray, will know that this Government revised the previous Government’s legislation and reduced the number of premises in scope, thereby reducing the cost to businesses over 10 years from £2.17 billion to around £1.83 billion. It would be churlish of me to point out that, when he was a Minister in the Home Office overseeing the previous Bill—and when it had a higher financial cost to businesses and organisations—that he did not bring forward a proposal such as the one in his amendment. But, as I said, it would be churlish to mention that, so I will leave it just as a thought for noble Lords to consider alongside today’s proposals. He was a Home Office Minister for a significant amount of time during the passage of the previous Bill, but he did not register his current concerns at that time.