Electronic Trade Documents Act 2023 Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateBaroness Harris of Richmond
Main Page: Baroness Harris of Richmond (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)Department Debates - View all Baroness Harris of Richmond's debates with the Department for Business and Trade
(11 months, 2 weeks ago)
Lords ChamberMy Lords, we have a virtual contribution from the noble Baroness, Lady Harris of Richmond.
My Lords, in a letter to Peers in June, the Minister, the noble Viscount, Lord Camrose, stated
“industry stands ready and eager to support the delivery of this Act for UK businesses of all shapes and sizes, developing guidance and standards to ensure it’s a success”.
Notwithstanding the Minister’s response, how are the Government actually working with industry, as well as others he mentioned, to ensure this? Should not we now have more detail about the implementation of the Act?
I thank the noble Baroness for that question. That is the nub of what we are dealing with: we have passed the Act, which is a great first step, but we now need to implement it inside our ecosystem. There are going to be great advantages, some of which have already been identified in terms of cost. There are also advantages in data collection. We believe that we can greatly increase our trade finance to SMEs; currently trade finance for exporting is perhaps not the most accessible. We believe that the digital mechanism for data collecting will greatly increase the ability to access finance and reduce its cost, so we see benefits everywhere around this legislation.