Extracts from
Consideration of Commons amendments to the Procurement
Bill
(CB): ...As
recently as yesterday, the Sunday Telegraph reported that the
Co-op has decided to ban Chinese CCTV for “ethical and security
reasons”. Given the Minister’s professional background in a
previous life, she will know that, in doing this, it is following
the example of Tesco. It would indeed be odd if supermarkets were
ahead of public bodies in recognising the dangers posed by the
CCP’s surveillance state. I was also very struck that the Deputy
Prime Minister, the right honourable , speaking in another place
this afternoon about allegations concerning espionage on the
estate of your Lordships’ House and that of another place, made a
point of saying that one of his first actions in Whitehall had
been to have surveillance cameras linked to Hikvision removed
from his department. This is something that also said when he became
Secretary of State for Health. I simply say that,
if supermarkets
and departments of state are not suitable places for these
cameras, where is? It would indeed be odd if we did not think
about the 60% of public bodies that are estimated to have
Hikvision cameras in use...
(LD):...I thank the noble Lords,
Lord Alton and Lord Hunt, for bringing forward these two
amendments. I shall address them sequentially. I do not share the
surprise of the noble Lord, Lord Alton, about supermarkets being
able to lead. I am sure the Minister will probably agree
that supermarkets are
in contact with their customers. They sense the morality and the
feelings of their customers, so they do not just lead—they
follow. Perhaps we are a bit slow in picking up the moral
revulsion that people have out there, and also the fear of
scrutiny from a totalitarian regime. I think both those issues
play with the public, the public play those back to
the supermarkets and
the supermarkets
have very good antennae for picking them up. We should share
their sensitivity to these issues...
For context, OPEN HERE
Extract from Lords
debate on Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland: Follow-up Report
(European Affairs Committee)
The Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development
Office () (Con):...
Previously, even under the grace periods, full international
customs processes applied for all truckloads, even where goods
were staying in Northern Ireland. The Windsor Framework replaces
those processes with a system based on the sharing of ordinary
commercial information. Previously, all food moving into Northern
Ireland had to meet EU standards, which had already led
to supermarkets withdrawing
some products. The Windsor Framework means that UK food and drink
public health standards apply to products moving in the green
lane. As I think the noble Lord, , said, the green lane also allows
more trade to benefit than was the case under the grace periods.
From 30 September 2023, the new UK internal market scheme will
expand the range of businesses able to benefit from the new
arrangements and will protect internal UK movements from
burdensome customs processes. For example, and as identified in
the report, the turnover threshold for businesses involved in
commercial processing has quadrupled to £2 million. There are
various other areas but, in the interests of the few other points
that I would like to cover, I will cover the specifics of any
outstanding questions in a letter to allow for a full response to
be given.
