Lord Razzall
Main Page: Lord Razzall (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Baroness Wilcox
It is a long-standing commitment of the Government not to gold-plate European Union legislation by implementing it early. We have confirmed many times our intention to transpose that directive, thereby providing business—especially smaller business—with certainty. We are making sure that it is written as it should be written and in a way that we think it can be enforced. As we know, within the European Community, our problem is that our Anglo-Saxon law here is not necessarily the same law as applies to some of the other countries. Therefore we have to be very careful that what they are going to do is enforceable.
Lord Razzall
Now that the noble Lord, Lord Pearson of Rannoch, is in his place, is the Minister prepared to give any more detail as to exactly how the implementation of this European directive will help small and medium-sized enterprises on this topic?
Baroness Wilcox
The fact that we are being asked to substantially write it is an enormous help. It means that we can write it following the legislation that we already have, which I have already explained and on which I complimented the previous Government for putting in place. The most important thing that we can get out of this is a requirement that local public authorities have to pay within 30 days. It is very important to get that in place, and it is certainly worth taking the time to get it right.