I thank all noble Lords for their contributions to the debate. It has been a measured debate and—thankfully—fairly on topic, which is always a relief. A number of noble Lords have
raised some good questions, and I hope to be able to answer them. To the extent that I am not, I will certainly write.
However, I will address one issue straight up, which is about environmental protections post exit. The Government are very clear that we will not weaken environmental protections when we leave the EU. We will instead maintain, and even enhance, our already high environmental standards. The detergents SI will ensure the continuation of standards and requirements in relation to the placing on the market of detergents, while maintaining a high degree of protection for the environment and human health. I hope that as I go through the answers to the questions today, the Committee will feel this is indeed the case.
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I turn briefly to an issue raised by my noble friend Lady McIntosh about the European Chemicals Agency and whether we will have a relationship with it and other bodies in the future. I am sure that noble Lords will join me in hoping that we do. It is a matter of negotiation: obviously, we would very much appreciate being a member of RAPEX going forward. That would possibly save us having to set up systems ourselves, but that is a matter for negotiation and, as noble Lords will know, at this moment we are dealing with a no-deal SI in the context of us not reaching an agreement.
Turning specifically to the safeguarding SI, I should say up front that there is absolutely no complacency on the Government’s part about what we intend to do in the rare instances where these safeguarding clauses might be needed. They will be used only on a case-by-case basis because they are extremely rare. There also have to be strong justifiable grounds that the detergent constitutes a serious risk to human health and the environment, as these detergents will already have been placed on the market and will therefore be in compliance with the detergents regulation. The Secretary of State and the devolved authorities must give reasons for their measures, submitting the scientific or technical information on which they are based before effectively taking action against a product.
The safeguard clause is there primarily to protect the integrity of the market—in this case, the UK market—and to provide reassurance to businesses that action will be taken only on a case-by-case basis. As noble Lords will have noted from the Explanatory Memorandum, this is on a product-specific case-by-case basis; it does not refer to entire classes of product and is not a system for longer-term risk management. That is where the technical annexes to the main SI come in. To amend those annexes—to improve the environmental protections—will require a second statutory instrument to go through your Lordships’ House in the usual fashion.
The noble Baroness, Lady Jones, mentioned the devolved Administrations, which are important because this is a devolved matter. We are working extremely closely with those Administrations to ensure that the frameworks are in place to encourage working together. The draft regulations provide that where the Secretary of State or a devolved authority take provisional measures, they must immediately inform the other
authorities— so that all authorities become aware at the same time—and submit the scientific or technical information to those authorities at that time. The other authorities can then decide in their own right whether to impose the same provisional measure within their devolved competence. As a devolved matter, that is entirely right. While I cannot guarantee that all the DAs would implement the safeguarding provision at the same time, I am sure the Committee would agree that it would probably be quite unusual if they did not. However, I am sure that if they did not, there would be very good reasons for that. Again, this provision has been used only very rarely—twice in the last 15 years. If the regulatory regime is right in the first place, it should not be used again for a very long time.
I turn to the alert service. It is true that we will lose full access to information-sharing systems such as the EU’s rapid alert system for non-food products, known as RAPEX, in the event of our leaving the EU without a deal. Of course, access will depend on negotiations, and I am sure that all noble Lords would agree that it would be to the UK’s benefit if we were to be part of those negotiations. However, we have to prepare ourselves for where we may be.
The UK will still have access to publicly available information on RAPEX. I am sure the Committee would agree that if there was a sudden concern about a product it would be quite unusual, I suggest, for that not to be publicly shared on RAPEX. From the Government’s perspective, a new product safety database will be set up by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. It will underpin the safety of citizens and minimise environmental risks in the future. Producers and distributors will have to inform their local authority—typically, the trading standards department —about any unsafe detergent product, as now. The local authority will then take action.
The noble Lord, Lord Addington, asked whether the 90 days can be extended or rolled over. This is a provisional measure and it is not used in response to a long-term change in status for a particular product. After that 90-day period has ended, a slightly modified version of the General Product Safety Regulations 2005 then applies to that detergent. These regulations require all products to be safe and they contain their own enforcement provisions, in the form of safety notices requiring withdrawal from the market. Having been through the 90 days, the product will find itself in that situation next if indeed it is deemed unsafe.
The noble Baroness, Lady Jones of Whitchurch, asked about the UK being notified about unsafe products that are already here post exit, and how we will we notify the EU in return. I suppose my answer is similar to what I have already been able to explain, in that although we will not have access to RAPEX we will know about publicly available information. We would also have the BEIS database. The UK will not be able to notify the EU about unsafe products directly through a formal system. However, having reminded the Committee that this provision is for a no-deal situation—the worst-case scenario—that may change in the future. Information sharing is always beneficial in these areas and it is in everyone’s interest to share information. That applies across the EU but also, where possible, globally.