The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Culture,
Media and Sport (Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay) (Con) My Lords, on
the basis that the focus of the Bill is on modifying the private
law of property, which is generally devolved, we are seeking a
legislative consent Motion from the Scottish Parliament. We
continue to work closely with officials in the Scottish Government
to ensure that we receive legislative consent from the Scottish
Parliament for this Bill....Request free
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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for
Culture, Media and Sport ( of Whitley Bay) (Con)
My Lords, on the basis that the focus of the Bill is on modifying
the private law of property, which is generally devolved, we are
seeking a legislative consent Motion from the Scottish
Parliament. We continue to work closely with officials in the
Scottish Government to ensure that we receive legislative consent
from the Scottish Parliament for this Bill.
3.49pm
Motion
Moved by
of Whitley Bay
That the Bill do now pass.
of Whitley Bay (Con)
My Lords, I will briefly take this opportunity to thank all noble
Lords who have shown an interest in, and support for, this Bill.
It was a Law Commission Bill, scrutinised through the Special
Public Bill process, so I thank in particular the noble Lords who
sat on the Special Public Bill Committee which examined it. It
was chaired most ably by the noble and learned Lord, , and benefited from
the membership of the noble Lords, , and , and my noble
friends , Lord Lindsay and
. Our work was admirably
assisted by our clerk, George Webber. I thank him and all those
who gave evidence to the Committee.
Apart from the minor changes made to apply this critical
legislation to the whole of the UK, the Bill before your
Lordships remains the work of the Law Commission, so I record my
thanks to Professor and her colleagues at the
commission, Laura Burgoyne, Daniella Lupini and Siobhan
McKeering, for their diligent work. I also thank Oliver Tones,
the Bill manager, and Bobby Lawson, his deputy, along with the
Committee’s government lawyers who have contributed to this,
specifically Simon Brandon, Louise Dennison and Chris Callan, as
well as Nausheen Khan from my private office.
This Bill has global transformational potential and will place
the United Kingdom at the forefront of international trade as a
thought leader for others to follow. One witness who appeared
before the Special Public Bill Committee, when asked what, if
anything, he would change about it, said:
“The only thing that I miss is the change from the word ‘Bill’ to
the word ‘Act’.”
I hope that that change can be brought about swiftly. I beg to
move.
(CB)
My Lords, may I add one word of thanks to the Minister and all
the members of the Committee? I am afraid they had to work quite
hard learning something that I had the disadvantage, probably, of
having done for more than 50 years. The House also ought to thank
so many from the industry, academia and the court who gave
evidence to us because we scrutinised the work of the Law
Commission to make certain that the Bill would meet the demands
of international trade and, particularly, the convention produced
by UNCITRAL to which this Bill gives effect. I thank all the
members of the Committee again.
(LD)
My Lords, I add my thanks to those of the noble and learned Lord,
. I certainly
learned a great deal about the Law Commission process for
scrutinising Bills, and a lot of that was due to the fact that
the noble and learned Lord, Lord Thomas, was an expert and wise
chair of our Committee. Great thanks are due to him and to the
Minister. It is rather unusual to have a Minister sitting in on
the Committee, but he was very welcome nevertheless, along with
the noble Lord, . I also thank the other
members of the Committee who kicked the tyres very effectively on
the Bill. Of course, I particularly thank Professor and the Law Commission.
The whole purpose of the Bill is to make digital trade a reality.
We sometimes think that our job is done when a Bill goes through
and we can think about something else, but it is important that
progress is made on the single trade window which will result
from this Bill. Can the Minister tell us when the first phase of
the single trade window might happen? Will it happen in November
2023? After all, it is a very important part of what we should
expect. It is quite complex. It is described as a
multi-department programme, which probably sends quivers down the
spines in Whitehall. It would be very good to hear that the Bill
is going to come into effect very quickly and will lead in the
very short term to greater digital trade, but it is a very good
Bill and we have scrutinised it pretty effectively.
(Lab)
My Lords, it falls to me to add my general congratulations to the
Minister, to the noble and learned Lord, Lord Thomas, for his
work on this, to the Bill team and the advisers who were behind
them and, in particular, as the noble Lord, , said, to Professor
, who led the way in the
evidence and cleared a great pathway for us. The Law Commission
should be congratulated on constructing this legislation to which
none of us wanted to effect an amendment, and we succeeded in
that through many hours of deliberation and consideration, so
that is something to be proud of in itself.
I want to add to a point the noble Lord, Lord Clement- Jones,
usefully began. Many Bills meander their way through Parliament
and disappear, sinking without a trace. I suspect this Bill might
do that as well, but it does not deserve to. This is a really
important piece of legislation which we should not just be proud
of but make something of. Some estimates suggest we can save
something like 50% in costs by moving to forms of electronic
trade. That is not to be sniffed at in an intensely competitive
international trading world. This piece of legislation, which
puts us in the lead on electronic trade, is something we should
celebrate.
I raised in Committee with the Minister that we should ensure we
have a strategy which means that this Bill gets the opportunity
to do what it says it is about: facilitating electronic trading.
I asked the Minister about this when we were in Committee. He
said:
“Following the Bill being passed, many of the precise steps taken
to implement and fully harness the benefits of the Bill will be
for business and industry to determine.”
That is fine, but we need a clear pathway and strategy from the
Government for us to be able as a trading nation to reap the
benefits of this legislation. I would like to hear from the
Minister—it is something I am sure the House will want to come
back to at some point—what that strategy might look like. He
later said that there is
“a role for government to play”,—[Official Report, Electronic
Trade Documents Bill [HL] Special Public Bill Committee, 20/2/23;
col. 17.]
which is the case. However, we and Singapore are the only two
trading nations with the benefit of this legislation in
prospect.
I congratulate the Government on bringing this forward. It is a
fine piece of legislation. It may not be controversial, but it is
potentially of great value. I hope this Government can aspire to
give this piece of legislation the value it deserves.
of Whitley Bay (Con)
I am very grateful to the noble Lords, who have given the rest of
your Lordships’ House a brief snapshot of the good scrutiny the
Bill received through the Special Public Bill Committee. It may
be unamended, but it is certainly not unscrutinised. I am very
grateful to all the other members of the Committee for the work
that they did and, as the noble and learned Lord, Lord Thomas,
rightly said, to all the academic experts, those from the legal
profession and, crucially, from the industries which stand to
benefit the most and came to give evidence before the Committee.
All of that was much appreciated.
The noble Lord, , asked about the single
trade window. It falls to colleagues at His Majesty’s Revenue and
Customs. If I may, I will direct the question to them and furnish
him with an answer on the single trade window. Both noble Lords
are right that there is work to be done across government.
Colleagues at the Department for Business and Trade and at the
Department for Science, Innovation and Technology will take the
Bill forward in another place.
As noble Lords have heard me say before, through our presidency
of the G7 recently and our role jointly chairing the Commonwealth
digital connectivity cluster, we are in international fora
encouraging other jurisdictions to follow our lead in this area
to align with the model law and avail themselves of these
opportunities. They are significant for industry in terms of the
simplification and speeding up of trade, the environmental impact
and resilience when it comes to unforeseen things such as the
pandemic, which brought into relief the importance of this
Bill.
This Bill is facilitative, but it will put the UK ahead not only
of the G7 countries but almost the whole world. I am very proud
that we are setting the approach which other jurisdictions will
seek to follow. With gratitude to noble Lords who have
scrutinised the Bill in your Lordships’ House, I beg to move that
the Bill do now pass.
Bill passed and sent to the Commons.
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