Letter from the Chairman to the Under Secretary of State for Work and Pensions - Lord McKenzie of Luton

Biocidal Products Regulations 2001 (S.I. 2001/880)

I am writing belatedly in reply to the letter of 6 December 2006 from your predecessor, Lord Hunt of King's Heath. The reason for the regrettable delay is that there is no record of that letter having reached the Committee office; it was unearthed by your Department in preparation for the forthcoming Special Report "Scrutinising Statutory Instruments: Departmental Returns, 2007", but it is not known whether the slip arose in Parliament, in your Department or in the Royal Mail.

The Committee's general approach remains that offence provisions should be precise. However it is recognised that the guidance issued in November 2006 goes a good way towards meeting, in practice if not conceptually, the concern that underlay the Committee's original report on this instrument. In consequence the Committee expects to be content, when it issues the forthcoming Special Report, to remove this instrument from the list of those classified as calling for further action.

DAVID MACLEAN MP

24 June 2008