My Lords, there have been some succinct speeches in this debate and I shall keep my remarks relatively brief, but bearing in mind that there are six amendments to address.
Amendment 27 in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Kramer, and the noble Lord, Lord Purvis, seeks to require the TRA to publish a strategy of its engagement with certain stakeholders within six months of its establishment. I am afraid that I agree with my noble friend Lady Noakes that we do not see merit in this, and I shall briefly explain why. The TRA’s processes are set out in legislation and limited by the scope of WTO agreements, including much of the basis of how it will engage with stakeholders in its investigations. UK producers will be able to bring complaints directly to the TRA through an innovative digital service which will underpin the process and make it easier for businesses to engage. I hope that I can provide further reassurance to the noble Baroness by outlining that we have engaged extensively with various stakeholders on establishing the TRA and encouraged them to build constructive relationships with the TRA itself, once established. I shall say more, particularly in relation to questions raised by my noble friend Lord Lansley, about progress on setting up the TRA in a moment.
I will move swiftly on to Amendments 28 and 29, in the name of my noble friend Lady McIntosh of Pickering, in relation to the TRA. These amendments would seek to narrow the limits of a request that the Secretary of State may make to the TRA for advice, support or assistance. We are committed to creating a world-class organisation staffed by a team of highly skilled international trade experts. The Secretary of State may require assistance from the TRA’s knowledgeable experts in certain circumstances to assist work carried out by government departments. There are some situations where the Secretary of State may need to request assistance from the TRA outside of trade remedy disputes arising under the WTO dispute settlement mechanism, including assistance in respect of provisions relating to trade remedies in regional trade agreements.
In seeking assistance, however, the Secretary of State must have regard to the TRA’s independence, impartiality and expertise.
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The provisions of Clause 6(1) specify the matters on which the TRA can provide advice, support or assistance when requested by the Secretary of State. They are limited to areas of international trade and relate to the TRA’s area of expertise. The provisions of Clause 6(2) set out the types of advice or assistance that the Secretary of State may request. While the list is not exhaustive, it is limited by subsection (1) to particular matters. If the TRA received a request that went beyond the matters set out in Clause 6(1), it would provide what assistance it could—but within the scope of this provision. The TRA will be a specialised body with expert understanding of trade remedies and international trade. It is unlikely that narrowing the limits of requests that the Secretary of State can make will do anything other than hinder the TRA’s ability to assist on these matters.
Amendment 30, also in the name of my noble friend Lady McIntosh, seeks to change the purpose of the initial consultation between the Secretary of State and the TRA before making a request. It is important that the initial consultation allows the TRA to provide the Secretary of State with a range of relevant information so that she can determine whether her request is appropriate.
I recognise that my noble friend is trying to ensure that the consultation process is clarified. However, restricting the consultation to a discussion of the scope of the request would limit the amount of information that could be requested about the impact of the request on the TRA. The Secretary of State must be able to make informed decisions based on the information that she receives from the TRA. This amendment would prevent the Secretary of State being obliged to seek during the consultation process information that pertained to the TRA’s expertise and independence, although she would still be required to have regard to these issues when making decisions based on the TRA’s assistance, under Clause 6(3)(b).
I will say a bit more about the questions asked by my noble friend Lady McIntosh, focussing mainly on why the department would need to request assistance from the TRA. My noble friend linked her questions to issues of independence and impartiality, which I quite understand. As she will know, the TRA will be an independent body staffed by trade remedies experts. There are a number of situations where the Secretary of State may need to request assistance. In relation to trade remedy disputes arising under the WTO dispute settlement mechanism, which I mentioned earlier, these may include, assistance in respect of bilateral or regional trade agreements, or assistance in relation to technical issues arising in appeals against decisions made by the Secretary of State following recommendations made by the TRA. For example, the UK may be involved in a dispute relating to an investigation carried out by the TRA. The Secretary of State would be responsible for defending the decision in this dispute but would understandably need to work closely with the TRA to do so effectively. I hope that that gives some assurance and answers to my noble friend.
Amendment 47, in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Bassam of Brighton, seeks to ensure that members of the TRA have a balance of skills, knowledge or experience relating to producers, trade unions, consumers and devolved Administrations. Amendment 48, in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Bennett of Manor Castle, adds civil society to that list. Although the full process behind these amendments may appear laudable at first sight, the skills that board members can provide to address the issues facing the TRA must be the focus of any recruitment process, and limiting that process to reflect the interests of particular parties—a good few parties—would be counter- productive.
Furthermore, this amendment does not give a description of what an “appropriate balance” may mean for the membership of the TRA board. This would create considerable vagueness in terms of prescription and uncertainty for the Secretary of State when selecting members of the board. For example, would a gap in experience relating to producers mean that the board is unbalanced? What if there was only one member with experience of the production sector, but two with experience relating to consumers? I could go on. Does there need to be an equal number of members experienced in each area?
We believe that the addition of “civil society” to the list would create even more uncertainty. The term can have a broad range of meanings and it would be difficult to discern candidates with skills in such a loosely defined area. Identifying appointments who fall into this category, rather than that of consumers or trade unions, would be challenging, further complicating the process of striking balance across the board.
As I mentioned earlier, my noble friend Lord Lansley made a number of points. I may need to consult Hansard later and write to him, but I will have a stab at replying on the progress of the TRA. Good progress is being made. There are currently 100 staff in post and plans to increase this to 130 as the workload increases in parallel. I welcome the support of my noble friend Lord Lansley for the leadership of the TRA, particularly for the experience of the current chair and CEO-designate. I thank him for his comments.
We have had applicants from a wide range of backrounds and all areas of the UK, and I assure noble Lords that appointments are being made on merit. As I said earlier, being beholden to a narrow and ambiguous set of criteria to appease certain interest groups would be unhelpful and open to interpretation and misinterpretation. I hope that these explanations have reassured noble Lords and that the amendments can be withdrawn.