My Lords, I speak from my background as somebody who has worked in logistics. I will not enter into the economic or moral arguments, although I have strong views on both. My life has been spent moving people and freight by planes, ships, lorries and trains through airports, stations and other facilities.
Last week, the Government published a large document with detailed instructions as to how this was to be carried out in future. I received part of it last night and read some of it this morning. It is very complicated and is aimed at an industry used to carrying out instructions if they are communicated in fairly simple terms and in a logical and timely fashion. The document does not pass either test; it has been published within a few weeks of our leaving the EU and, as I said, it is complicated. It has to be understood by a lot of people low down the food chain—not lawyers but lorry drivers or people operating fork-lift trucks.
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I submit to your Lordships that this document does not fit the bill. It is late, complicated and will lead to massive hold-ups of people and goods in very confined spaces. That is presumably why the Government have provided so much holding space all over the country in places such as Anglesey, Warrington, Essex and Suffolk. We will have these places almost despoiled by large places where lorries wait. The Government say that is subject to local planning consents, but it is hard to get an informed local planning consent in the few weeks that exist before they are supposed to come into effect.
I have asked how permanent the local planning consents will be because, as far as I can see, these places will become massive servicing and transhipment facilities. They will have overnight accommodation, there will be office facilities and they will become havens for crime, because whenever goods or people are moved about, opportunities exist for criminals to take advantage.
How many additional customs agents will be employed? Who will pay for these new terminals? At present, generally speaking, the industry provides its own. Where are those customs agents going to come from? Are they to be recruited from companies such as Deloitte, which is apparently a specialist in taking money from the taxpayer but not providing the service it is committed to provide?
The main point is that logistics people will do what they are asked to do, but it is up to the Government to make proper arrangements. If these are inadequate, both physically and operationally, it is unacceptable for the Government to try to lay the blame not on themselves, having not prepared the ground properly, but on the operators—they are often very low-level employees—who are bound to carry it out. There was some talk in the press this week of fining the National Health Service because it is falling behind in routine operations. If that is the way the Government are going to treat the logistics industry, we are in for a very rough ride.