Consideration of Lords message to the United Kingdom Internal Market Bill - Dec 10
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United Kingdom Internal Market Bill Consideration of Lords message
Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Rosie Winterton) We now come to
consideration of the message from the House of Lords on the United
Kingdom Internal Market Bill, which is to be considered in
accordance with the order of the House of 14 September. I must draw
the House’s attention to the fact that financial privilege is
engaged by Lords amendments 48B and 48C. If any Lords amendment
engaging financial...Request free trial
United Kingdom Internal Market Bill Consideration of Lords message
Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Rosie Winterton) I must draw the House’s attention to the fact that financial privilege is engaged by Lords amendments 48B and 48C. If any Lords amendment engaging financial privilege is agreed to, I will cause the customary entry waiving Commons financial privilege to be entered in the Journal. Before I call the Minister, I should say that hon. and right hon. Members will be aware that we have one hour for this debate, which means that I will impose an immediate five-minute time limit. However, that may end up being four minutes, depending on how long the Front Benchers take. I just want people to be aware of that. After Clause 1 COMMON FRAMEWORKS PROCESS 13:35:00
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Business, Energy
and Industrial Strategy (Paul Scully) That this House disagrees with the Lords in their amendments 1B, 1C and 1D.
Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Rosie Winterton) That this House agrees with the Lords in their amendments 8B, 8C, 8D, 8F, 8G, 8H, 8J and 8K, but disagrees with the Lords in their amendment 8L, insists on its disagreement with the Lords in their amendments 13 and 56, and proposes amendment (a) to the Bill in lieu of Lords amendments 8L, 13 and 56. That this House insists on its disagreement with the Lords in their amendments 14 and 52 to 54 but does not insist on its disagreement with the Lords in their amendment 55. That this House does not insist on its disagreement with the Lords in their amendment 44. That this House does not insist on its disagreement with the Lords in their amendment 45, and proposes amendment (a) instead of the words left out by the Lords amendment. That this House does not insist on its disagreement with the Lords in their amendment 47, and proposes amendment (a) to the Bill consequential upon the Lords amendment. That this House disagrees with the Lords in their amendments 48B and 48C. That this House agrees with the Lords in their amendment 50B, but disagrees with the Lords in their amendment 50C. That this House agrees with the Lords in their amendment 51B.
Paul Scully I am glad that, since our last debate on the Bill on Monday, there have been a number of very positive developments. I am delighted that the peers in the other place and the Government have worked together constructively to agree on a number of areas. However, it is clear that there are still a number of outstanding issues, which I will address today. I will set out the Government’s rationale and I call on this House to support the Government’s proposals. I want to start with some of the positive developments, notably on part 5 and Lords reasons 14B, 45B, 52A, 53A, 54A and 55A. The Government have been clear throughout that they were committed to implementing the withdrawal agreement and the Northern Ireland protocol. We were also clear that as a responsible Government we could not allow the economic integrity of the UK’s internal market to inadvertently be compromised by the unintended consequences of the protocol. That is why, through clauses in the Bill, we sought limited and reasonable steps to create a legal safety net by taking powers in reserve, whereby Ministers could guarantee the integrity of the United Kingdom and ensure that the Government were always able to deliver on their commitments to the people of Northern Ireland. We sought those measures to guard against the possibility of not reaching agreement with the EU at the Joint Committee. As my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and his EU counterpart have reached an agreement in principle, I am pleased to say that the clauses that provided for the safety net are no longer needed and the Government are removing them from the Bill: that is, clauses 44, 45 and 47. I am pleased that the other place has now also agreed to clauses 42, 43 and 46 and consequential amendments, which are purely about protecting Northern Ireland’s place in the UK customs territory and internal market, delivering unfettered access in line with the Northern Ireland protocol and codifying in legislation existing practice in terms of the Foreign Secretary notifying the European Commission on state aid. Alongside that, and in line with the agreement in principle, we have tabled a new clause that will require the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy to set out guidance for public authorities on how the state aid provisions of the protocol will work in practice, as well as consequential amendments as a result of removing clauses 44, 45 and 47. Guidance must take account of any declarations made by the EU and the Joint Committee, which would include the proposed EU declaration that forms part of the package agreed in principle by the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. I call on the House to agree with the Government’s approach in this area. I turn now to amendments 1B, 1C and 1D. Yesterday, noble Lords in the other place once again commended the importance of the Government’s continuing co-operation with the devolved Administrations on the common frameworks programme and reiterated their support for it. I would like to take the opportunity to thank the noble and learned Lord Hope for his considered intervention yesterday, and for all his thoughtful work on the Bill. However, while his new amendments would clarify the interaction between divergence agreed under common frameworks in the market access principles, they would still potentially undermine the certainty that the market access principles are designed to provide for business, because of the possibility of differing interpretations of what is permitted under an agreement. Moreover, as I set out on Monday, the amendments could create a broad exclusions regime. In itself, that denies businesses and consumers much needed clarity about the terms of trade within which they operate. I would also like to take this opportunity to remind the House that common frameworks are processes for negotiation and reaching agreement, and are not in themselves a policy outcome. Wholesale exclusions from the market access principles of agreement reached through the common frameworks process could therefore lead to the unacceptable risk of harmful trade barriers being erected across the UK. Such barriers could not be erected under the EU system unless justified and notified to the Commission, and they are undesirable in our own UK internal market. For those reasons, I respectfully suggest that the approach put forward in the amendments is not appropriate. I have said previously that the Government are committed to completing the delivery of the common frameworks programme and protecting these areas of co-operation to the benefit of jobs, people and livelihoods. We welcome the support of hon. and right hon. Members here in achieving that. However, amendments 1B, 1C and 1D have considerable drawbacks and I therefore call on the House to disagree with them. Let me turn to Lords amendment 8L. I remind the House that, in drafting the Bill, and clause 10 specifically, the Government designed an exclusions approach that achieves a careful balance. It sits within the fundamental framework of the market access principles, which protect the UK’s highly integrated internal market, but allows the Government to remove very targeted and specific policy areas from scope, so it can continue to operate for the particular conditions, where they are needed, under the bespoke constraints that are relevant to those circumstances. Let me repeat the point for emphasis: we agree that there is a need for an exclusions regime, but one that is carefully drafted and provides certainty for business. I am therefore disappointed that the other place has again voted to upset that careful balance with an altered, but still fundamentally flawed, expansive list. It would render the protections and benefits of the internal market proposals under part 1 meaningless. This would allow unnecessary trade barriers and unjustifiable costs to businesses and consumers. Amendment 8L captures all kinds of public policy objectives and only requires a new regulation to make a contribution to any of the aims in the list. That means that almost any regulation that the UK Government or the devolved Administrations propose in the future could be excluded from the scope of the market access principles. I therefore call on the House to disagree with amendments 8L, 13 and 56, and agree with the Government’s amendments in lieu.
Liz
Saville Roberts (Dwyfor Meirionnydd) (PC) “discredited principle of ‘Westminster knows best’”?—[Official Report, House of Lords, 25 November 2020; Vol. 808, c. 278.]
Paul Scully Let me turn to amendments 48B and 48C. It is right, as we leave the transition period, that the UK Government have the right tools to make sure the whole country can benefit from investment, which strengthens the communities, economies and connectivity within and between all parts of the UK. I emphasise once again that this power is in addition to the devolved Administrations’ existing power. It does not take away responsibilities from the devolved Administrations; rather, the power will enable the UK Government to deliver investment more dynamically and in collaboration with the devolved Administrations and other partners. The Government will work with the devolved Administrations to ensure we can complement their existing and continuing powers, used to support citizens in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. We will also work collaboratively with other crucial partners, including local authorities and wider public and private sector organisations.
Alan
Brown (Kilmarnock and Loudoun) (SNP)
Paul Scully I want to touch briefly on the UK shared prosperity fund. This power means that the UK Government can make good on our commitment to the UKSPF. The UK Government intend to work with the devolved Administrations and with local communities to ensure that this power is used to best effect and that the UK shared prosperity fund supports citizens across the UK. Indeed, we have confirmed that the devolved Administrations will be represented on the UK SPF governance structures. The Government will set out further details of the objectives and administration of the shared prosperity fund in the UK-wide investment framework, which will be published in the spring. We will continue to engage the devolved Administrations as we develop the investment framework in advance of its publication. 13:45:00 On the governance of the fund, while the specific arrangements are still being developed there will be governance structures and the DAs will have a place within those structures. That is part of the further work we need to do, and it will go on in consultation with the devolved Administrations and others as we work to set out the framework that we will be publishing in the spring. The Government have been more than clear in their intention to work with the devolved Administrations and therefore do not think that Lords amendments 48B and 48C are necessary. Moreover, as these amendments also alter the financial arrangements made in this House, as we have heard, I call on the House to disagree with them. I turn to Lords amendment 50C. We are grateful that the other place accepts the reservation of subsidy control. I think we all agree that we should continue the UK-wide approach to subsidy control, and this reservation confirms that in law. However, despite assurances from the Government and a commitment to consult the devolved Administrations on the outcome of our forthcoming consultation, the other place continues to have concerns about how we engage with the devolved Administrations on this particular policy issue. The amendment that it has put forward means that the reservation would not come into force until the Government had agreed a common framework or, if one could not be agreed, no earlier than three years. This would undermine the reservation and would provide an unnecessary delay to the implementation of a future UK-wide subsidy control regime. The common frameworks programme was designed to operate in policy areas where regulatory powers previously held at EU level intersect with devolved competence. State aid has never been devolved, and the devolved Administrations have never previously been able to set their own subsidy control rules, as this was covered by the EU state aid framework and it has never been included in the common frameworks programme. Therefore, the approach proposed in this amendment would not be appropriate. If the Government were to adopt the amendment, the UK would potentially have to wait three years to decide on a UK-wide approach to subsidy control. That delay would create unacceptable uncertainty for businesses and would damage our efforts to support the UK’s economic recovery from the covid-19 pandemic. We have listened to concerns regarding the role of the devolved Administrations in the development of proposals for the new subsidy control regime. The Government have tabled an amendment setting out our commitment to consult the devolved Administrations on the Government’s response to the UK subsidy control consultation. I therefore call upon the House to disagree with Lords amendment 50C, as it is inappropriate to link the operation of the reservations proposed by clause 50 to common frameworks, and as we have also addressed the concerns in Lords amendments 50B and 51B. I appreciate the constructive approach that peers in the other place have been taking in discussions with the Government. While the Government cannot agree with the amendments put forward by the other place as they stand, I hope that the other place will reconsider and continue to work with the Government.
Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Rosie Winterton)
Edward
Miliband (Doncaster North) (Lab) |