(Manchester
Central) (Lab/Co-op):...I will turn now to our principal amendment.
New clause 11 would place a duty on Ministers to report on the
progress and impact of the Bill. Throughout the Committee stage,
the Government have sought to reassure both sides of the House of
their good intentions in relation to the common frameworks process,
the Joint Committee talks and their ambitions for the
shared prosperity fundyet their warm words have
not been backed by either statutory underpinning or transparency in
the publication of their plans. As such, our new clause 11 gives
the Government one last opportunity to report back to the House
regularly on those important issues.
On common frameworks, the Government should stand by their stated
intentions. Ministers herald this approach yet refuse to put them
on a statutory footing. Our new clause would require Ministers to
return to the House regularly to update us on the progress of
agreeing common standards. Crucially, they would have to
demonstrate that they had agreed them, as they said they would,
and that they were acting in good faith in exhausting all
opportunities to do so before using the powers in this Bill. For
the sake of completeness, we believe—for those who did not hear
my comments last week—that the ultimate arbiter of the UK
internal market has to be the UK Parliament. However, the
Government could and should have taken a more respectful and
co-operative approach to agreeing the minimum standards that
underpin that market.
On the collective desire for a shared prosperity
fund to replace the EU structural funds, we had a long
debate with concerns raised across the Committee about how these
funds will be distributed. The promised framework has yet to be
published, and Members from all parties have been left
unconvinced by the Government’s reassurances. We want to ensure
that within three months of this Bill becoming an Act, the
Government must produce the framework and operating principles of
the new shared prosperity fund. At its heart,
funds should follow need and be administered locally...
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