Select Committee on Regulatory Reform Seventh Report

Report under Standing Order No. 141

Summary

1. The Regulatory Reform Committee has examined the draft Regulatory Reform (Registered Designs) Order 2006 in accordance with Standing Order No. 141. We recommend unanimously that the draft Order be approved.

Introduction

2. The Proposal for the draft Regulatory Reform (Registered Designs) Order 2006 was laid before the House by the Cabinet Office on 13 March 2006 on behalf of the Minister for Science and Innovation, Lord Sainsbury of Turville, in the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).

3. The draft Order substantially follows that which was included in the proposal. It would amend the Registered Designs Act 1949 ("the 1949 Act") which governs the registration of designs in the UK in order to remove burdens associated with four specific aspects of the legislation governing procedures for the registration of designs. The draft Order would:

a)  remove the power of the Registrar to refuse to register designs on grounds of lack of novelty or individuality and to conduct searches for establishing novelty;

b)  remove an effective block on multiple applications;

c)  require public inspections of all designs, and

d)  facilitate the reinstatement of lapsed registrations.

4. The RRA requires that a draft Order cannot be laid before Parliament till after a period of 60 days following the laying off the proposal.[1] That period expired on 12 June. On 19 June 2006 the Government laid the draft Order before Parliament, together with an explanatory statement from the DTI.[2]

5. We are required under Standing Order No. 141(6) to examine the draft Order against such of the criteria specified therein as are relevant. We are also required to consider the extent to which the responsible Minister has had regard to any resolution or report of the Committee or to any other representations made during the period for parliamentary consideration.[3]

Findings of our previous report

6. We issued our report on the proposal for this draft Order on 26 May 2006.[4] It described the effect of the Proposal in some detail and assessed it against the statutory and Standing Order tests. We concluded that the Proposal for the Regulatory Reform (Registered Designs) Order 2006 would be an appropriate use of the powers granted under the Regulatory Reform Act 2001, and that the DTI had made a convincing case for the desirability of making the Order. We recommended that some minor drafting changes should be made to the draft included in the proposal before the draft Order was laid before the House.[5]

The Department's response to our report

7. The DTI has made the minor amendments to the Order's drafting, as we requested, and has also made two other minor corrections.[6]

Other representations

8. The period for parliamentary consideration of the proposal began on 13 March 2006 and expired on 12 June.

9. The House of Lords' Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee concluded in its report that the proposal met the requirements of the Regulatory Reform Act and that it would be appropriate for the reforms proposed to be made under the Act.[7] The DTI states in its explanatory statement that Counsel to the House of Lords Select Committee on Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform informally recommended two minor amendments in order to improve the drafting of the Order and that these suggestions had been adopted. [8]

10. The DTI states that it received no other written representations during the period of Parliamentary consideration.

Recommendation

11. In accordance with Standing Order No. 141 (15), we recommend unanimously that the draft Order be approved.

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1   Not including days during which either House of Parliament is adjourned for more than four days. Back

2   Copies of the draft Order and explanatory statement are available to Members of Parliament from the Vote Office and to members of the public from the DTI. The draft Order is also available on the Cabinet Office web site: www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/regulation/reform/act/proposals.asp  Back

3   Standing Order No. 141(7) Back

4   Fifth Report from the Regulatory Reform Committee of Session 2005-06, Proposal for the Regulatory Reform (Registered Designs) Order 2006, HC 1142 Back

5   Described thus at paragraph 16 of our report : "Where the 1949 Act refers to a section of that Act, it always does so in terms of "section X of this Act". Most of the amendments made by the proposed Order maintain this approach, but those in articles 8 and 9 do not."  Back

6   See DTI's explanatory statement (13 June 2006) paragraphs 18 to 21 -substituting the word "granted" for "issued" in section 22(1) of the 1949 Act and the consequential amendment of the transitional provision in article 19 so as to limit the effect of article 16(2)(b) and (3) but not article 16(2)(a)  Back

7   Seventeenth Report from the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee of Session 2005-06, Proposal for the Regulatory Reform (Registered Designs) Order 2006, HL 160 Back

8   See DTI 's explanatory statement (13 June 2006) paragraphs 8 and 14 to 17 - an amendment to section 8A(4) of the 1949 Act to make it clear that the periods being referred to are those in section 8(3) and (4) of the 1949 Act and a consequential amendment to the tailpiece of 22(1) of the 1949 Act so that it refers specifically to subsection (4) as the only remaining provision, rather than referring to the "following provisions of this section". Back

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Prepared 7 July 2006