My Lords, I rather regret that, early on in this debate, the noble Baroness, Lady Randerson, mentioned rugby. I would have thought that this was not the weekend for her to do it, but I am sure that it cheered up others in the House.
It is hard to add much to the case so clearly set out by earlier speakers, and I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Bennett, for covering the amendments in our names, so I do not need to go through them. I will just say that, yet again, the Bill bears testimony to the haste in which it was cobbled together. Perhaps even more serious was the lack of consultation and joint working with the devolved Administrations. How else was it possible to think it appropriate to give the OIM to a non-ministerial government department, accountable only to the UK Parliament through its sponsor department, BEIS, without a thought to the interests, the responsibility, the competences or the rights of the devolved authorities?
As the noble and learned Lord, Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd, said, whatever structure we end up with must surely have the confidence of all four nations. Indeed, he said that the appointees should have the experience and the expertise of the four constituent nations. That point was emphasised by the noble Lord, Lord Empey, who said that, particularly in the case of Northern Ireland, which will be working in a different regime from the others, it was absolutely essential to build in the requirement that someone with that expertise and knowledge was involved in the governance of this organisation.
Without these amendments, it would simply be the Secretary of State who had the power to appoint the chair and members of the CMA’s board and of its panel—the latter, of course, as we have heard, is responsible for operational and casework decisions. More than that, BEIS is a UK department, which gives the CMA a non-binding strategic “steer”, as the noble Baroness, Lady Randerson, reminded us. Therefore, one Government of the four gives the CMA a steer with that Government’s strategic priorities, to which it is expected to have regard. Placing the OIM in the CMA to monitor the health of the internal market—apart from all the issues about whether it has any expertise to do so—including its impact on intra-UK trade, investment and competition, but with no voice from the other three parts of the UK, appears, at its kindest, forgetful, but at worst, deliberate.
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The office for the internal market is meant to update all the administrations and legislatures on developments in the internal market. But the suggested structure leaves this within a UK body, a body set up to deal only with reserved matters.
My noble friend Lord Stevenson will shortly suggest, as we have heard, that the office should not even be within the CMA. But for the purpose of this group of amendments, we seek to ensure that, if it remains there, it should, as the noble Baroness, Lady Bowles, said, be a consensually agreed body. It has to take on a devolved nature and ensure that appointments are genuinely shared with devolved Governments and that its work is reported to all the legislatures—as the noble Lord, Lord Cormack, says, there are four, not simply one. At the very least, the Secretary of State should obtain the consent of the relevant devolved Governments to any appointments, preferably with each being able to appoint one member of the CMA board.
I have a serious point to make to the Minister. I know he is in listening mode because he always is; we have got used to that. I plead with him to not just bat away these amendments. Clearly, they will return on Report, so it seems better for the Government to work consensually with your Lordships’ House but also with the devolved Administrations. As the noble Lord, Lord Empey, says, the current proposals clearly do not have the confidence of any of the devolved authorities. So, for the Government to be resisting these, even at this stage, sends a very serious message.
The CMA or the OIM may, as the noble Baroness, Lady Noakes, says, as is their remit, cover the whole of the UK, but it is hard to understand how, in a devolved world, that is possible if they are appointed by only one of the four Governments. Devolution matters. The union matters. We do not want, in the words of the noble Lord, Lord Cormack, a broken union. A zero response to these amendments would be serious, as my noble friend Lord Hain suggests, and it does look like a power grab, as the noble Baroness, Lady Altmann, says.
Consultation is inadequate. At the very least, there has to be consent, and I hope the Minister will give the House the absolute confidence not just that he is listening but that he will take back the message to those who, I hope, will enable us to have a consensual approach by Report stage.