Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill

A sunset gives us an idea of the timing of the measures. It has precedent elsewhere. We have brou...

It is in the name of my noble friend Lady Randerson.

Okay—I apologise.

Before the noble Baroness turns to the specifics, would she deal with the general point that has ...

I think my noble friend sent the letter to try to be helpful, following the discussions that were...

My noble friend was kind enough to mention me and our work together in the European Union. We hav...

I do not think it was entirely different. As I recall, in those days we were trying to cut red ta...

Very much to the point the Minister is making, because seat-belt legislation is 40 years old, the...

Of course, we need to keep things up to date. As part of our consideration of a call for evidence...

The Minister says that it is self-evidently right that we should give that guarantee now that the...

My Lords, I hope your Lordships will forgive me. I have put my name down to the Clause 1 stand pa...

I think the noble Baronesses for their interventions and understand their depth of feeling. I sho...

I follow up the impassioned speech of the noble Baroness, Lady Meacher. We were given a very good...

The noble Baroness, Lady O’Grady, mentioned asbestos as another example, and of course we dealt w...

I assume the Minister is about to move off Amendment 7 and on to Amendment 8. Before that, could ...

I think exact groupings of the regulatory area will be a judgment for the relevant Minister. The ...

I am two sentences behind the Minister in what she says permeating my consciousness, but on this ...

To make progress, I should make it clear that Clause 15 is the main clause and that there are a n...

I understand the noble Baroness’s impatience, and she has been very generous and helpful. Did I h...

There is a sifting process. The regulations will come to this House. There will be some that peop...

So it will not be the negative procedure in every case?

And there will presumably be some that the Government are going to abolish altogether, in which c...

In fairness, the noble Lord is right: there is the scope for some sunsetting, but the direction o...

I seek clarification. Is it the case that Parliament can or cannot amend an SI?

The Government cannot amend an SI but they can debate one. We will debate these arrangements in o...

The question was whether Parliament can amend an SI, not whether the Government can amend an SI.<...

I think the Minister confirmed that Parliament cannot amend an SI. We can block an SI.

My Lords, I direct the Minister’s attention to the Civil Contingencies Act. While she thinks abou...

I think we have heard a number of general points—I just want to maintain the level of humour. I t...

I agree that we need to get to specifics here and that progress is important, but I think that th...

I apologise to the noble Baroness, but in our debates on future clauses we are going to discuss i...

I am sorry, but the letter clearly says that the interpretive effects are not going to be kept, h...

Is the noble Baroness talking about supremacy and the general principles?

No.

I am advised that the interpretive effects are not case law; I thank my noble friend on the Front...

Can I have clarification, then, on why the Department for Transport consulted on removing or redu...

I thank the noble Baroness for raising that; I will have to take it up with the Department for Tr...

I do not think the Minister was coming on to this point; if she was, I apologise. I asked a speci...

I thank the noble Lord. His was a general question; I was not going to seek to reply to it. Obvio...

May I suggest an answer to the noble Lord’s question? One way of avoiding regulatory divergence w...

Again, we come back to individual decisions, although we have an amendment on the devolved Admini...

I still do not really understand the difference. How can it be authoritative if it is not compreh...

We can confirm that it is authoritative. The version that will come out in the spring—the next ve...

Can my noble friend confirm that there will be consultation?

If we have new regulations then the normal form in departments is to consult on them.

6 pm<...

Will they have time within the deadline?

The Bill sunsets in 2023.

The Minister says she can confirm that all significant regulations are on the dashboard, because ...

Departments have been looking at these regulations for a number of years. Some time ago, when I w...

On a technical, legal point, it would be helpful if the Government could set out the methodology ...

As always, the noble and learned Lord is very helpful. I will think about that and about what we ...

Perhaps I can assist the Minister. We had an informative round table yesterday, convened by the n...

I am sure that they were trying to make a helpful point. We have got to help one another to get t...

The Minister raised the question of aviation. It is one of the most serious points here because i...

The presence here of the noble Lord, Lord Benyon, is a good indicator of what we will get in the ...

We have been searching for some clue as to the criteria for what will be retained and what will b...

I thank the noble Baroness for another general question. On transport, the DfT published the Avia...

I do not think that the Minister gave a substantive answer to the point that I raised. I am happy...

It is the gentlemen and ladies in Whitehall and in the European Commission. If I may, rather than...

The noble Baroness could say that the Government will support Amendment 32, which would enable Pa...

I have listened to this debate and some important points are still left in the air. I may be slow...

We will try to answer the questions of your Lordships’ House. I am conscious that the Bill went t...

I do apologise for intervening again, but would it not make sense for us to debate the group star...

We have debated issues of principle, notably at Second Reading, when noble Lords made some very i...

My Lords, I think this is a case of “follow that”. I thank all noble Lords who have taken part in...

Moved by

Baroness Bakewell of Hardington Mandeville

10: Clause 1, page 1, line 4, at ...

My Lords, I rise with some trepidation, because I am at a disadvantage from not having been here ...

My Lords, I rise to introduce my Amendment 37. I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Bakewell, for her...

My Lords, I added my name to a number of amendments in this group. I am sure we do not want to re...

My Lords, I added my name to Amendment 37 in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Hayman of Ulloc...

My Lords, I am very glad that the noble Lord, Lord Benyon, has found time to join us for the deba...

My Lords, I declare my interests as chairman, president or vice-president of a broad range of env...

My Lords, I apologise to the House that I was not able to speak at Second Reading as I could not ...

My Lords, I am grateful to noble Lords for raising some of these important subjects, which we mus...

My Lords, I am particularly interested in and concerned about several regulations on animal welfa...

My Lords, forgive me declaring my interests in the register—I am personally an environmental symp...

My Lords, this is a very unsatisfactory and frustrating Bill in which to take part. I am sorry th...

My Lords, I apologise for not being present for very much of the Second Reading— I had other parl...

I very much agree with the noble Lord. I will simply make two small points at this stage of the d...

I join the tributes to my noble friend the Minister—an excellent Minister who is passionate and k...

My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow the noble Baroness, Lady Altmann, and to join in this debate...

My Lords, I will speak very briefly. This has been an interesting hour and a half, but the Govern...

Because this has cropped up a couple of times, I think it is important that we distinguish betwee...

My Lords, that is exactly the point I have been trying to make: it is how we manage the land that...

My Lords, I was not intending to speak, but I was prompted by the challenge from the noble Barone...

I do admire my noble friend’s defence of the impeccable parliamentary democracy which lies behind...

I thank my noble friend for making that point, but mea culpas go both ways. Some of us were sayin...

My Lords, this is offensive for democracy if it does go through.

Very briefly, the reason we are welcoming the noble Lord, Lord Benyon, is not because we have gro...

I am very grateful to noble Lords for what has been a very thorough debate. Before getting into t...

I am sorry to interrupt the Minister—I know that everyone wants to get to the dinner break—but wh...

I am very happy for the noble Baroness. As a parliamentarian in the UK Parliament, I had no say. ...

To clarify the point about interpretive effects, I point out that the letter says:

“Anythin...

Interpretive effects are not case law; they are the principle of EU supremacy—general principles ...

Perhaps the noble Lord could write to us with a detailed explanation.

I will certainly do so; I will then be able to read my own writing. As the Secretary of State rei...

Is the noble Lord confident that he can ensure that he will be able to retain all the laws that h...

Absolutely, because if we cannot do so for any reason then we have that power of extension, which...

Will the noble Lord therefore lobby within his department for using the 2026 date rather than 31 ...

That would be the extension point. We will assess them on a case-by-case basis and apply the exte...

That assessment process is part of what I was hoping the Minister could shed some light on. It is...

There is a core team of Defra civil servants co-ordinating this but every policy area is involved...

The Minister says that the sunset can be extended to 2026, but surely we need to know which regul...

If we have to extend, that would be the subject of a secondary legislation measure, so this House...

I am sorry to disturb the noble Lord again. Following on from the noble Baroness’s point, Clause ...

I entirely agree with the noble and learned Lord: it has to be specified. That is the work we are...

Will my noble friend—

I want to make some progress.

I understand that, but I have not spoken yet. Can I just ask: where is this going to be specified...

In the work we are doing to assess each area of retained EU law, we will make an assessment of wh...

My Lords, as I expected, the Minister is giving a very satisfactory list of assurances that he ha...

Before the Minister stands up, he will know that one of the continuing problems in this country i...

I thank the noble Baroness and my noble friend for those remarks. We will be providing a clear li...

Will it be in on the face of the Bill and put into law, so that we have protection against future...

I just say to my noble friend that the direction of travel of this and future Parliaments that wi...

The argument is that it may not be necessary, because the Minister is confident that we are going...

Because if it is in the Bill, you cannot improve it, as has been said in very eloquent terms—

Oh!

Well, not without going through an exhaustive amendment process. I want to see higher environment...

We accept that the Minister is ambitious, but the question I raised was specifically about the En...

I will of course reflect on the points made today, and we will consider them all in due course. I...

I thank the Minister giving way. Forgive me. I think I heard him say a few moments ago that the e...

We are transposing it. I am sorry if I was not clear. I was setting out a very high standard that...

I am most grateful to the Minister, and I admire his excelsior position that we are aiming at hig...

We can get bogged down in a philosophical debate about what regulation is for. Some people come a...

The Minister raises this point about the extension mechanism. Does that mean in effect that the G...

A delay is reform, because it gives more time to get it right. There may be specific technical is...

The default position is actually that it falls unless you have this extension. The extension mech...

We have got the resources that we need to carry out this work.

My Lords—

Can I just finish this point? Where there are more complicated issues that may require us to spen...

My Lords, while I am impressed by the resources being put into this effectively useless power, wh...

Having laboured through many of the details of this, I can assure the noble Lord that it is a goo...

The noble Lord, Lord Benyon, is a good Minister who is genuinely doing his best, but we have a fu...

As the Secretary of State said at the launch of the environment improvement plan, we will retain ...

I am terribly sorry to noble Lords, I really am. We have not heard the expression “retain by defa...

I am quoting what Ministers have been saying for some weeks now, so it should not be a great surp...

Before the noble Lord sits down, could I raise one point on delay? I am trying to visualise a sit...

My Lords, I will give my noble friend the Minister a couple of thoughts to take away.

Leave the Minister alone.

We are in Committee, and anyone who wants to leave may leave, but I wish to speak. I will say two...

My Lords, I thank all noble Lords who have taken part in this debate. There are far too many and ...

Moved by

Baroness Ludford

26: Clause 1, page 1, line 4, at beginning insert “Subject ...

My Lords, Amendment 26 is a paving amendment, so I will speak mainly to the substantive Amendment...

My Lords, I am delighted to follow the noble Baroness. My amendments are a little more directly a...

My Lords, I added my name to Amendment 27, in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady McIntosh of Pi...

My Lords, I will speak in support of Amendments 26 and 27. Amendment 26 moved by the noble Barone...

My Lords, I will speak to my Amendments 46 and 47 to the Minister’s Amendment 45, which no doubt ...

I support the amendment in the name of the noble and learned Lord, Lord Hope, and Amendment 26. T...

My Lords, I have not participated in Committee before. The Committee will be aware from my speech...

My Lords, I start by apologising to the Committee for not speaking at Second Reading. I support A...

My Lords, I came in this afternoon to join the environmental debate, because I knew of the anxiet...

My Lords, I am most grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady Jolly, for the way that she introduced h...

My Lords, I speak to Amendment 27 in the name of my noble friend Lady McIntosh of Pickering and t...

I shall speak to Amendment 63, to which I added my name to those of the three noble Baronesses, L...

My Lords, we have had almost an hour on this topic.

My Lords—

The Minister must be allowed to speak.

I will start by speaking to government Amendments 31, 41, 45, 52, 138 and 144. Amendments 31, 41 ...

My Lords, I am being denied my right to speak.

The proposed new clause tabled in Amendment 45 sets out clearly and in one place all the exceptio...

This is outrageous.

10.15 pm

I was quite happy not to speak in this debate. I did not table an amendment. I would like to have...

They are not short remarks. They are nothing to do with the amendments in question. The noble Lor...

On the previous day in Committee, I raised the issue and the Minister said explicitly that we cou...

Okay, let the noble Lord raise his point.

I wish to address subsection (1)(a) of the new clause. It is about process rather than the issues...

I will address the noble Lord’s point at the end of my remarks, after I have moved the government...

The Minister referred to Amendment 26 and 48 as additional complex processes. Does he not acknowl...

No, I do not accept that, because the vast majority of the rule that would be allowed to sunset i...

My Lords, I and everybody else wants me to be brief. I was astonished to hear the Minister descri...