There will be a change of tone, because the speeches so far have been understandably wide ranging, and mine will be much more narrow and technically focused and also much shorter. I say by way of preface that it is both strange and regrettable that the analysis of my right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Rushcliffe (Mr Clarke) was not adopted by the remain campaign, because we might have been saved a great deal of trouble if it had been. Frankly, he speaks passionately and well, and I prefer the economic analysis as to risks and/or benefits of someone who was one of the most distinguished post-war Chancellors to that of those who have not had the opportunity to hold those exalted positions and whose view of the matter sometimes seems a little more based on articles of faith than on practical experience.
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That said, I want to turn specifically to new clause 22, which is in my name. It is relevant to what has gone before. At the end of the day, we all accept that because of the decision that was made, we must find a way forward now that gives the best possible arrangements for our business and our jobs. In particular, I want to
concentrate on the requirement that business has for maximum certainty in relation to the treatment of any deficiencies in the retained EU law, and it is dealt with in clause 7 at some length. It is particularly important for all businesses, but especially for the City of London and for the financial services sector, which, as has been rightly observed, is about 80% of our economy. In the course of the Committee stage, I moved a number of probing amendments, and this is a probing amendment, too, which seeks greater clarity from Government about exactly how we deal with some of the nuts and bolts of those matters.
The clause 7 scheme of course sets out a means for dealing with this deficiency by means of statutory instruments—I understand that. I previously proposed a fall-back scheme as an alternative scheme of interpretation to deal with deficiencies. In doing so, I had the advantage of advice from the City of London Corporation, the Financial Markets Law Committee and the International Regulatory Strategy Group, probably as great a body of expertise on financial regulatory law and process that can be found anywhere in a square mile—if I can put it that way—and not something that one would wish to see lightly ignored.
I am glad to say that in the course of those discussions, Ministers—the Minister on the Bench today, my hon. Friend the Member for Wycombe (Mr Baker), and my hon. and learned Friend the Solicitor General—were most constructive in their response. I accept that the Government are genuinely seeking to tackle this matter and to minimise the need for dealing with it by means of regulation as far as possible. For that simple reason, it looks as if there could be 800 to 1,000 pieces of secondary legislation needed. With the best will in the world, it is a massive task, so what I have done now is to return with a much narrower new clause, which will deal only with the default position in those circumstances where, for whatever reason, it was not possible to deal with potential deficiencies by means of regulation under clause 7. Therefore, it is even more of a stopgap, but there is still a sentiment among people in the business sector that things inevitably crop up that are sometimes time-sensitive—perhaps in the course of ongoing litigation or in the interpretation of a significant commercial contract where it may not be possible to wait for the process of secondary legislation to go through. It is that important but narrow point that my measure is designed to deal with.