I hope that my hon. Friends will forgive me if I do not go down exactly the same route as some of the conversations we have had recently. I had a good deal to say yesterday on the previous part of the Bill, and I will not repeat that, because I see my good friend the Minister in his place, no doubt ready to ensure that amendment 66 is moved at the end of the day. He knows—as do you, Ms McDonagh—that since that is the case, my amendment 4 will not need to be moved. Having made sure that he will remember to move amendment 66, I can now move on to the stand part debate.
I am a little prejudiced here; a name like Robert James MacGillivray Neill is probably indicative that my heritage comes from various parts of the United Kingdom, and I am very proud of my Scots background. I might add that the weekend after the European Union referendum, in which everybody knows I campaigned vigorously to remain in the EU, I happened to come across my call certificate to the Irish Bar via King’s Inns in Dublin. Who knows, it might come in handy one day, but it reminded me that there are huge and deep-rooted linkages between the countries of the United Kingdom. We can talk about what are the right governance arrangements between them, but there are personal interdependencies and economic interdependencies that benefit us all. I hope that later this evening we are going to be able to deal with a number of those concerns. No doubt there is more to discuss, but, having banked that progress, I want to say that the rest of the Bill is desirable.
That is why the thrust of the Bill is desirable and, as I said yesterday, I have no trouble supporting it all, apart from my concerns about part 5.
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An obvious example of the interdependencies and the synergies is in my constituency, in London, where about 35% or 36% of the working population are in financial and professional services. As it is commuter
land, they work in large measure for the City of London, which is Europe’s and indeed the world’s pre-eminent financial centre, but there is an impact on other important financial centres. For example, there is a natural link and synergy between the expertise and pre-eminence of the financial services in the City of London and the very highly established, very well regarded financial services sector in Edinburgh, in Scotland; it also has a very good reputation. Making sure that they remain part of a single and connected market is to both sides’ benefit, so making sure we do not have needless obstacles in those regards is obviously desirable.
The point about professional qualifications was well made by the hon. Member for Belfast South (Claire Hanna), and it is why I was struck that my membership of the Irish Bar might be of use, because, ironically, the legal profession has always had a carve-out from those regulations. It is a recognition going back to the Act of Union that we were not seeking to impose absolutely uniformity. To respect and protect the separate legal systems in Scotland and now, separately, in Northern Ireland, legal professional regulation is different and is carved out. As an English barrister, I do not have the right automatically to practise in the courts of Scotland. If I had, I would perhaps be trying to see whether I could measure up the Lord Advocate’s office. I do not have that right, but the irony is that as a member of the Irish Bar, an EU member state Bar, I would have that right. That is perfectly reasonable and I do not have any problem with it; we know it is necessary because the legal system’s distinctiveness is part of the national character of each of the parts of the UK. However, the free flow of goods, workers and services is in everybody’s interest.