Greenhouse Gas Emissions Trading Scheme (Amendment) (Extension to Maritime Activities) Order 2026

Debate between Baroness Hoey and Lord Whitehead

Thursday 12th March 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Whitehead (Lab)]

It is not an impossibility for the next 15 years. Getting an accurate picture of trade always involves a range of calculations—you cannot get it exactly right. However, so far the impact of this proposed order has been assessed at below 1% of those costs; the Government do not recognise the figure of 6% put out by some parts of the industry. That is set against the gain that could come from those bodies being in the ETS, the alignment with CBAM in future and so on.

I might add that, although the product of this particular entry into the ETS has not and will not be hypothecated—indeed, no British Government have ever hypothecated anything that has come into their coffers—what we need to judge it by is how much money has already gone out. Just last week, £271 million went out to further support the maritime industry in its transition to a low-carbon basis. The SHORE fund has several hundred million in it, including £18 million that has already gone to Northern Ireland. All of these are paying back the money that is going into the fund in the future, for the benefit of the maritime industry and its transition.

[Baroness Hoey (Non-Afl)]

My Lords, at the beginning of this debate, when I was being nice to the Minister and thanked him for the meeting he asked for with me, I said that I did not want to spoil his career prospects and that I thought that, if it had been his decision, he might have chosen to withdraw the SI at the beginning. Now, by the end of this debate, perhaps he would have been even more keen to withdraw it.

This has been an extremely good and wide-ranging debate, as the Minister said. It has brought together two or three key issues—I will not go over them again. It is the first time I have had an SI dealing with not only Northern Ireland but other parts of the United Kingdom, and it has been very good to see so many of the Government Benches full. If one benefit of tabling a fatal amendment is to get a lot of Labour Peers to come here and listen, it is probably worth it.

I thank in particular those Peers who do not normally speak on issues related to Northern Ireland. My fatal amendment is very much geared to the inequality of Northern Ireland and the way it is treated differently from Scotland. It was particularly good to hear from the noble Lords, Lord Berkeley and Lord Ashcombe, on the wider aspects of the SI in relation to the Isle of Wight and the Scilly Isles. It was also good to hear from the noble Baroness, Lady Bennett, and the noble Lords, Lord Mountevans and Lord Greenway—I am very sorry if this might well have been his last speech in the House—who brought their genuine experience of shipping.

If there is any lesson to learn today about speeches, it is that we should all, including me, follow the example of the noble and learned Baroness, Lady Butler-Sloss, who, in her two very short interventions, hit the nail right on the head about how this issue has been handled. Despite the meetings on this side, what happened over the past few days in Northern Ireland was a very bad way for government to be working. The way that the Northern Ireland Office has completely ignored the wishes and needs of Northern Ireland, in terms of business opportunities and what will happen with this carbon tax, has been quite deplorable. Worst of all, as has been said by a number of Peers, was the way the statutory instrument was dealt with in the other place: absolutely different information was given right up to the very last minute. The MLAs were cajoled, blackmailed and treated by the Government as if they were pretty stupid and would not understand that they were being told things that were different from what had been said in the other place.

I thank all Members who have spoken. Of course, all the Northern Ireland Members know the issue and how strongly people will feel its effects. The unfairness to part of the United Kingdom, which comes up over and over again in this place, is becoming ridiculous and quite unsustainable if we care about the union and equality between all parts of the union. Having said all that, I really do not want to waste people’s time when they have sat through and listened. I would like to test the opinion of the House.