(Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Business, Energy
and Industrial Strategy)): The UK Internal Market (UKIM) Bill is
fundamental to providing a reliable legal basis for the effective
and coherent functioning of the UK internal market. It guarantees
that businesses and consumers across the UK are not subject to
harmful internal trade barriers following our exit from the EU
Single Market regime. Legislation of this kind must be in place
across the whole UK in order to provide businesses and consumers
from all parts of our country with the same legal protections and
advantages.
From the outset, it has been the UK Government's objective to
legislate for the UK Internal Market Bill with the consent of all
the devolved legislatures. At every stage, we have followed the
spirit and letter of the devolution settlement and worked hard to
secure legislative consent for this vitally important piece of
legislation for all of the UK. We have also engaged with
businesses, business representative organisations and wider
stakeholders, such as academics, across the entire country since
the Bill’s introduction to better understand expectations, needs
and concerns. The UK Government regrets the Scottish Government’s
decision to withdraw from UK-wide work on the internal market in
Spring 2019.
The engagement with the Welsh Government, in particular, has
resulted in tangible changes to the Bill to accommodate concerns
as well as strengthen devolved involvement within the machinery
of the legislation; this includes putting the relationship
between the Market Access Principles and Common Frameworks on the
face of the Bill as well as ensuring that the Secretary of State
is obliged to seek the consent of the Devolved Administrations
when panel appointments are made to the Office of the Internal
Market (OIM). We have also agreed to have an annual meeting to
review the operation of Parts 1-4 of the UK Internal Market
legislation with the Devolved Administrations, including the
Office for the Internal Market’s reports and new developments
that might require the use of delegated powers, using our
intergovernmental structures.
The UK Government does however deeply regret that the Scottish
Parliament and Senedd Cymru have both refused to provide their
consent for the Bill. We have maintained, throughout the Bill’s
passage, that the Government is open to discussing the concerns
of each Devolved Administration, and would make changes to the
Bill where it is possible, without undermining the necessary
purpose and integrity of the legislation. Proceeding with the
Bill to Royal Assent is necessary to put the legal structures in
place which provide clarity and consistency for businesses and
citizens working across the country.
The Sewel Convention envisages situations where the UK Parliament
may need to legislate for the whole country in this way. The
exceptional circumstances of our departure from the EU, and the
need to provide a UK-wide legal underpinning for the internal
market, is clearly one such situation. This Government is fully
committed to the Sewel Convention and the associated practices
for seeking consent. Indeed, in the current legislative session
of Parliament alone, the UK Government has secured (to date) 37
LCMs from the devolved legislatures; this is in addition to the
hundreds of other LCMs passed by the devolved legislatures over
the last 21 years of devolution. We will, of course, continue to
seek legislative consent, take on board views, and work with the
Devolved Administrations on all future Bills that engage the
legislative consent process, just as we have always done.
The UK Internal Market Bill will allow people to do business
reliably and seamlessly across all parts of the UK and enable the
UK Government to boost our economic recovery, increase investment
across the whole UK, create new jobs and be stronger as a country
as we emerge from this pandemic. The UK Government stands as the
conservator of this great Union - the most successful political
and economic Union in history - as a force for bettering peoples’
lives, with devolution delivering clear benefits for all UK
citizens. The UK Internal Market Bill will help to ensure that
England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland remain more
prosperous, stronger and safer together.
