It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Evans, and to conclude this debate. We have heard a number of passionate contributions,
not least from my hon. Friends the Members for St Ives (Derek Thomas), for North West Durham (Mr Holden), for Vale of Clwyd (Dr Davies), for Hitchin and Harpenden (Bim Afolami), for Montgomeryshire (Craig Williams) and for Bromley and Chislehurst (Sir Robert Neill), who were passionate about the Union and the need to ensure that businesses can continue to trade in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and England without interruption.
Before I address the details of the clauses and amendments, let me explain what that means to each of the nations in the UK. About 50% of Northern Ireland’s sales are to Great Britain, and nearly 60% of Scottish and Welsh exports are to the rest of the UK, which is about three times as much as their exports to the whole of the rest of the EU. That is £51.2 billion worth of trade for Scotland, £10.6 billion for Northern Ireland and £30.1 billion for Wales. The Bill secures and clarifies the internal market, which has been the bedrock of our shared prosperity for centuries.
The Bill will establish a market access commitment by enshrining mutual recognition and non-discrimination in law. The principle of mutual recognition is that goods and services from one part of the UK will continue to be recognised across the country, and that ensures that the devolved Administrations will benefit from freedom outside the EU. As the transition period ends, they will gain increased powers to set their own rules and standards across a wide range of policy areas within their competence. At the same time, this provides firm assurances to our businesses, which they have been asking for, that their goods can continue to flow freely throughout the United Kingdom.
Non-discrimination ensures that there is continued equal opportunity for companies to trade in the UK regardless of where in the UK their business is based. Measures in the Bill will also ensure that Northern Ireland qualifying goods benefit from the market access commitment and receive mutual recognition in the rest of the UK. That means that we are going to fulfil our commitment to legislate for unfettered access, as we promised the people and businesses of Northern Ireland.
In addition, the Bill will ensure that the same principles of mutual recognition and non-discrimination continue to apply to services, and it will establish a process for the recognition of professional qualifications across the UK internal market, allowing professionals such as doctors and teachers qualified in any part of the UK nations to continue work in any other part, as all hon. Members would expect.
A couple of canards kept coming up during the debate, including one about teachers. As my hon. Friend the Member for Bromley and Chislehurst pointed out, someone needs to have a qualification in the first place for it to be recognised in another nation of the UK, but it is true that the General Teaching Council for Scotland will continue to regulate teaching in Scotland, as happens at the moment, uninterrupted. This package guarantees a continuation of the centuries-old position that there should be no economic barriers to trading within the UK. Businesses need this—they are asking for this. Citizens need this. That is why it is right that we deliver this Bill.
I turn to the amendments in question today, starting with some of those tabled by the Government. Government amendments 90, 91 and 92 are technical drafting amendments that I hope the House will be able to pass.
Government amendments 5 and 6 are designed to ensure that local sanitary and phytosanitary measures are based on science and are technically justified to prevent barriers to trade arising that go beyond what is necessary to effectively prevent pests and diseases spreading to pest and disease-free areas.
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Government amendment 7 has two elements, covering fertilisers and pesticides respectively. It excludes pesticide authorisations and approvals from mutual recognition. It also excludes from mutual recognition the safeguarding decisions of Administrations in relation to fertiliser. That is necessary to allow each part of the UK to prevent the movement and use of certain fertilisers that may be dangerous, and of pesticides unless they have been assessed as safe and authorised for use in that part of the country, thus allowing for local environments to be considered and protected.
Government amendments 93 to 95 together clarify the way in which goods are defined as produced in a particular part of the UK. Government amendments 97 to 110 are all technical and drafting amendments to add clarity to the Bill, rather than changing any policy direction. This is again the case with Government amendments 111 and 112, which add notaries to the list of exclusions from mutual recognition and non-discrimination in services. Government amendment 96 is minor and technical. The change makes it clear that the ability to practise a profession is the ability to practise the profession as a whole, not just specific activities that may form part of that profession.
Government new clause 12 sets out that the Secretary of State has the power to issue statutory guidance about the market access principles of mutual recognition and non-discrimination, including guidance on enforcement. That will explain how the internal market principles operate within the current regimes and how they apply to the product in scope. This is necessary to support traders and existing regulatory authorities to understand, comply with and benefit from the principles and provisions in this Bill.
Amendment 89, which covers mutual recognition for goods, dictates that each good must meet the highest levels of standard anywhere within the UK for the sale of that good. However, we have designed the internal market regime so that it requires that a good conforms to the regulation where it has been produced or is imported. We as a Government have made the firm commitment to maintaining the UK’s high standards across the board, and in many cases we have higher standards than the EU itself requires, including health, food safety and our environmental standards. In many areas, UK standards are some of the highest in the world. These high standards will continue for every part of the UK. Common frameworks are the most productive and consensual way to move that forward, rather than trying to define this in legislative terms.
Amendments 34 and 35, in seeking to attach a requirement to obtain consent from the devolved Administrations, would undermine our ability to avoid trade barriers and provide certainty for firms, going against the core objective of the Bill. Amendments 73, 74 and 76 would bring existing regulations into the scope of mutual recognition. Fundamentally, however,
the internal market Bill’s system is about continuity and certainty. We do not want to change the rules that businesses already know and where they have already paid for adjustments, as that would cause disruption.
On amendment 86, there is no doubt that the protection of environmental, social and labour standards is an area we greatly care about across this Chamber. Our standards, as I have said, are among the highest, and we will continue to move ahead of others in this area. However, we believe that it is important to keep the list of legitimate aims tightly defined so as to limit the grounds on which goods from one part of the UK could face discrimination in another, eroding the benefits of the UK internal market. We have already provided for derogations given the fact of threats to human, animal and plant life. Expanding the list of legitimate aims in this way is not appropriate.