Public Procurement (International Trade Agreements) (Amendment) Regulations 2022

Baroness McIntosh of Pickering Excerpts

Wednesday 15th June 2022 Grand Committee

[Lord Lansley (Con)]

My Lords, I am very glad to have the opportunity to say a few words about these regulations and I thank my noble friend for introducing them so clearly. As somebody who laboured long and hard on the Trade Act 2021, it is always a pleasure to see the powers being used. There may not be many such further events but it is interesting to see it being used in this case.

I must confess that the reason I looked at these regulations was that, as my noble friend will recall, at Second Reading of the Procurement Bill I raised the interaction between that legislation and the Trade (Australia and New Zealand) Bill, which had, of course, been introduced at the same time in the other place. I looked at this instrument and thought, “How does this relate to the Procurement Bill?” Like the Australia and New Zealand Bill, as far as I can see, the Procurement Bill will supersede these regulations when it becomes law. Schedule 9 to the Procurement Bill incorporates the UK-EFTA agreement into the list of treaty state suppliers. So far, so fairly straightforward: we need these regulations to give effect to the agreement in the intervening period.

However, there is an issue about what these regulations do, because they also amend public contract, concession contract and utilities contract regulations to include the further provision relating to abnormally low tenders. It is a question of whether the price or costs take into account the grant of subsidies. First, I ask: does the preceding EU-EFTA economic area agreement have the same language? It seemed surprising if it did, on the face of it, because existing regulations, which are part of the structure of EU regulation, already take account of whether—to cite Regulation 69 of the Public Contracts Regulations, for example—the abnormally low tender price is because of the possibility of the tenderer obtaining state aid.

I should have thought that, in the EU context, the question of state aid and grant of subsidy were regarded as effectively the same thing. I suspect, therefore, that EFTA countries are saying that the words “state aid” do not necessarily have the same meaning in United Kingdom in future as “state aid” did in the EU in the past. I may be wrong about that, but I should be interested to know whether that is the case.

Anyway, this additional provision in the regulations changes, for example, Regulation 69 of the Public Contracts Regulations, which relates to abnormally low tenders. I thought, “Let’s see how this is incorporated into the Procurement Bill”, but I cannot find it. So, my other question is: how will that Bill incorporate the provisions of, for example, Regulation 69 relating to abnormally low tenders into the structure of our regulation in future? I am happy to be guided by my noble friend on that, not least because it will no doubt give us an opportunity to learn a bit more about how the Procurement Bill itself will work in future. Subject to those questions, I am glad to take the opportunity to welcome the regulations and support my noble friend.

[Baroness McIntosh of Pickering (Con)]

I, too, am pleased to speak to some of the issues before us this afternoon and thank and congratulate my noble friend on bringing forward the regulations. My noble friend Lord Lansley has eloquently addressed a number of issues on the relationship between this instrument and the public procurement Bill. But there is also the broader context of our new relationships with the EU and, now, with the three countries before us this afternoon. What is generally understood by “state aid” and has our policy towards them changed in that regard?

Perhaps the thing that concerns me most is this. My noble friend spoke about the GPA, the global procurement agreement to which we have signed up, and mentioned that it is worth £1.3 trillion to the UK economy. When the Trade Bill was passing through—I also took an interest in that at the time, and my noble friend Lord Grimstone spent hours trying to allay our concerns in this regard—it was curious that any public service was obliged to declare a contract worth, I think, €130,000 and to put it out for tender.

EU–UK Partnership Council

Baroness McIntosh of Pickering Excerpts

Thursday 16th December 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Frost (Con)]

My Lords, the noble Earl is right that there is a provision to agree an MoU. Indeed, there were discussions at the start of this year provisionally to agree that text. Those discussions have paused, again for reasons that we are not 100% clear about, although we can speculate. Naturally, we hope it will be possible to pick them up and move this forward, given that, as the noble Earl knows, some of the equivalence decisions are now imminent if not quite yet urgent.

[Baroness McIntosh of Pickering (Con)]

My Lords, in addition to the Horizon programme, which is causing some concern, my noble friend will be aware of the ongoing anxiety about the REACH programme. For those who have been affected by the fact that the unilateral UK REACH programme is not as comprehensive but is proving more expensive than the EU REACH programme to which all were subscribed before, what representations can be made to the EU-UK Partnership Council in this regard?

[Lord Frost (Con)]

My Lords, obviously we have inherited the REACH programme in the retained EU law that came on to the statute books and in the TCA. It is something we keep under close review, and it is certainly true that the costs of reregistering through REACH are considerable. We keep under close review the possibilities of trying to streamline and reduce them.

Retained EU Law

Baroness McIntosh of Pickering Excerpts

Thursday 18th November 2021 Lords Chamber

[Baroness McIntosh of Pickering (Con)]

Will my noble friend ensure that any such review of retained EU legislation will be based on fact and science? He will recall that when the EU nitrates directive was adopted, the bar was set very high to prevent any recurrence of blue babies. There has been no blue baby for 400 years. Why then are we actually extending the nitrates provisions and making them even more stringent on our farmers, when we should be reducing the restrictions?

[Lord Frost (Con)]

My Lords, I am not familiar with the detail of the points my noble friend raises. The general point that the EU tends to legislate in a highly risk-averse way, which has economic consequences, is a good one, and we will obviously have it in mind as we take this review forward.

UK Cash Network

Baroness McIntosh of Pickering Excerpts

Monday 8th November 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Agnew of Oulton (Con)]

My Lords, as part of the FCA’s role in monitoring and enforcing cash access, the Government consider that it should be given responsibility for ensuring that access points provide reasonable access. In terms of recent activity, since the passing of the Financial Services Act, retailers now have the ability to offer cashback without purchase—I think it was from 29 June—and we are already seeing some take-up of that. Indeed, PayPoint, which operates terminals in several thousand outlets across the country, has committed to provide that extension to its service.

[Baroness McIntosh of Pickering (Con)]

Will my noble friend give an assurance that there will continue to be access to cash in rural areas? Could he please define what, in his view, is a reasonable distance to travel to pay in or take out cash?

[Lord Agnew of Oulton (Con)]

My Lords, to reassure the noble Baroness, the provision of cash access across the UK remains extensive. As of March this year, 95% of the population were within two kilometres of a free cash withdrawal point.

Budget Statement

Baroness McIntosh of Pickering Excerpts

Wednesday 3rd November 2021 Grand Committee

[Baroness McIntosh of Pickering (Con)]

My Lords, I follow my noble friend in adding my congratulations to the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Newcastle on not just her speech but, as others have commented, her years of service to the Church and her public service generally. I wish her every success. As a money spider has just walked over our papers, I strongly recommend that she buys a lottery ticket before the end of the week.

I will focus on two aspects. I note the right reverend Prelate’s remarks on Temple and add my request for everyone to have the right to a warm home. I am the honorary president of National Energy Action, which is based in Newcastle, in the north-east. I am also the daughter and sister of dispensing doctors and I advise the board of the Dispensing Doctors’ Association. Many of my remarks will focus on rural areas.

I will talk, in particular, about not so much what is in the Budget but what has been left out. I regard it is a missed opportunity for the fuel poor. There are currently 1.5 million fuel-poor households and I regret to say that 25% of all electricity bills are raising and paying for the green levy. It is undoubtedly true that those on the lowest incomes have the least efficient homes and spend a higher proportion of their income on energy. It is feared that, when the price cap is removed in April 2022, a further 1.5 million households may tip into fuel poverty. The rise in energy costs before then will impact on other households, often in rural areas, which are not covered by the price cap, such as those that are dependent on coal, LPG and heating oil. One in four of Britain’s lowest-income households say that they cannot afford even a £5 increase to their monthly energy costs, so I regret that many of the fair recommendations for the Budget from National Energy Action were overlooked. In both the Budget and spending review, no measures were taken to alleviate the plight of the 4 million in fuel poverty.

I turn briefly to health and social care. The Government announced an increase in national insurance contributions in the form of the social care levy, to which my noble friend referred. This not just breaks a manifesto commitment but hits the two sectors that are trying to help the NHS and social care, as they are the two largest employers in the land. I press my noble friend on what is happening about the pledge that was made for 6,000 new GPs by 2024-25. On page 49 of the Red Book, reference is made to the increased number of nurses and appointments in primary care, but none is made to GPs. I understand that it was announced in the other place that this commitment would no longer be met by that time. It would be helpful to know, before the end of the debate, if that is the case.

I pay tribute to my right honourable friend Jeremy Hunt, who, earlier today in the other place, raised the severe labour shortages that there are in nearly every specialty in the NHS. While the Government and my noble friend said today that the proceeds of the levy will go to the NHS and social care, the Library, in preparation for today’s proceedings, highlighted that there are eight bodies that, presumably, will employ large numbers of these staff. That is not counting the ICS and clinical commissioning groups. In fact, the Red Book gives no detail on how the additional money will be spent. I press my noble friend with a direct question today: how will the money be allocated between primary and secondary care?

I have to say with regret that morale as I see it among doctors, particularly GPs, is at rock bottom. Patients have been told that they are unable to wait in waiting rooms for GP and dental appointments, and they are voting with their feet and going to accident and emergency departments. The Red Book tells us that there has been a 20% increase in the number of NHS staff in hospital and community health services since June 2011. How many of those increases have been in patient-facing positions, because that is extremely important?

There is real concern as to how the increased money announced by my noble friend today is to be allocated. It is usually allocated through the integrated care systems. What is the make-up of those? Does my noble friend agree that they are made up predominantly of secondary care rather than primary care representatives? Who monitors how this spending is allocated between primary and secondary care, and how will the budget be spread between rural and urban areas? In previous times, specific regard had to be had to rurality and sparsity of population. I understand that those conditions have now been dropped.

I end with a simple plea to my noble friend: that the Government act now to address the balance—or imbalance—between spending on GP surgeries in rural and urban areas, and hospitals, to ensure that the NHS can manage the stresses facing us this winter, not least in rural areas.

Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland: EU Proposals

Baroness McIntosh of Pickering Excerpts

Thursday 21st October 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Frost (Con)]

My Lords, my team has been in discussion with the EU on this subject all week. We are seeking to understand the detail that underlies some of the headline claims that the EU has made. It is possible that we do not fully understand that detail yet, but perhaps that will come. One aspect of the EU proposals that I am excited about is that they show that what previously it has considered impossible—changing its own laws for the special circumstances of Northern Ireland—is now possible. That is a very important and welcome step, and I hope the EU might be able to go further than the proposals it put on the table last week.

[Baroness McIntosh of Pickering (Con)]

I think my noble friend would agree that the Northern Ireland protocol is an integral part of the withdrawal agreement. Does he not share my concern that, if we go back and seek to renegotiate the Northern Ireland protocol, we will open up and have to renegotiate the withdrawal agreement as well?

[Lord Frost (Con)]

My Lords, the protocol has always been a somewhat separable bit of the withdrawal agreement, in the sense that it was renegotiated after the first version of the withdrawal agreement was agreed back at the start of 2019. It is to some extent free-standing in that sense, so I do not think that opening it up should affect wider parts of the deal. It is a text that is there to deal with a very specific problem, and therefore we need to find the correct, very specific solution.

Net-zero Emissions Target

Baroness McIntosh of Pickering Excerpts

Monday 11th October 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Agnew of Oulton (Con)]

My Lords, we already do a great deal to support those on lower incomes. We have a number of schemes to support those who are under pressure financially and at risk of higher energy prices. We will, of course, keep all those measures under review.

[Baroness McIntosh of Pickering (Con)]

Will my noble friend ensure that the Government commit water companies to reach their net-zero targets by ending the automatic right to connect for massive new housing developments where water companies simply cannot accommodate the huge amounts of waste water required in antiquated Victorian pipes?

[Lord Agnew of Oulton (Con)]

My Lords, there are currently no restrictions to water companies raising funds to make investments in reaching net zero, and water companies are able to submit plans for such investment to Ofwat as part of the price control. The Government are currently consulting on the strategic direction for the water sector. This consultation outlines the expectation that Ofwat will contribute towards protecting and enhancing the environment and will appropriately challenge water companies’ plans to deliver the change needed in the water sector to meet net zero.

Health and Social Care Levy Bill

Baroness McIntosh of Pickering Excerpts

2nd reading & Order of Commitment discharged & 3rd reading
Monday 11th October 2021 Lords Chamber

[Baroness McIntosh of Pickering (Con)]

My Lords, I congratulate the Government on at least tackling what is a very vexatious part of government policy. I refer to my interests: the work I do with the Dispensing Doctors’ Association and the fact that I was a dispensing doctor’s daughter and a dispensing doctor’s sister.

There has been very little focus today on the delivery of care in people’s own homes, as opposed to care homes. Through dispensing doctors and rural practitioners generally, and indeed those delivering care in people’s own homes, I am very familiar with the fact that delivering NHS and social care in rural areas is more challenging and therefore costs more than in more urban settings. How do my noble friend the Minister and the Treasury expect that to be addressed through both the raising and the spending of the money raised through the levy? There used to be a sparsity and rurality factor in NHS funding, and it would be very welcome to return to that if we can. How will funding apply to and be highlighted for the delivery of care to the elderly in their own homes in rural settings?

I come to the points raised by my noble friend Lord Lansley about those who are elderly with comorbidities, who are often taken into hospital as an emergency and then find it difficult to be released from that setting into their own homes. I regret the fact that many of the community hospitals and wards that used to take them as a step-up, step-down halfway house before they were deemed safe to return home have disappeared. It is important that the release of these patients and their discharge from hospitals to their own homes is highlighted in the way the levy can be used.

Therefore, I would particularly like to ask my noble friend what proportion of the extra money raised in the earlier years will be allocated to the health service especially. How will that money be distributed between primary and secondary care? At the moment, we are seeing that, where primary care does not have the resources to deliver, people of whatever age—but particularly the elderly, with comorbidities—are turning up and being treated as an emergency in hospitals.

I would also like to ask, because the Bill does not set this out, at what point my noble friend will address the urgent problem of staff shortages, which a number of noble Lords have addressed this afternoon. There is clearly a shortage of nurses, and I saw that as recently as last week, when a family member was treated, excellently, by the NHS; there is clearly a shortage of nurses and doctors, and, I may add, carers too. When will my noble friend address that and when will the Government come forward with proposals for our consideration?

Finally, I would like to say how regrettable it is that this regressive form of tax is being chosen. There are alternatives. The least favourable option for me would be an insurance scheme, which I know operates in many parts of continental Europe, such as Denmark. I find it quite alarming that, when a member of my family in Denmark calls an ambulance, they have to produce the payment and show they have the coverage before they are whisked off to hospital. For me, that is probably the least favourable option. But I regret that the form that has been chosen in this Bill is the most regressive. As the noble Lord, Lord Shipley, pointed out in the Government’s own tax information and impact note, it will impact on those who are just about managing at the moment.

I would like to point out something that the Government do not seem to have any recognition or cognisance of at all. By raising the levy on national insurance, the Government are taking money out of care and hospital care. Who are the largest employers in the country at the present time? The NHS and local authorities, and many noble Lords have referred to the fact that council budgets have already come under severe restraint. They are our two largest employers at the moment. The same tax information and impact note refers to the fact that:

“This measure is expected to have a significant impact on over 1.6 million employers who will be required to introduce this change.”


What the note and the Bill fail to reflect is that both the NHS and local authorities will have to find this money.

My final question to my noble friend is this: what estimate have the Government made of the cost to the NHS, local authorities and other employers of this additional 1.25%? How are the Government going to make good that money to make sure that patient care is not depleted in the same degree?

Imports from EU to GB: Business Preparation

Baroness McIntosh of Pickering Excerpts

Thursday 16th September 2021 Lords Chamber

[Baroness McIntosh of Pickering (Con)]

Of course, the greatest free market was the single market, which we very sadly left. My noble friend negotiated very successfully the trade and co-operation agreement. Will he use his good offices to ensure that this world-class border, which we would all welcome, will lead to a single portal for documentation that will be largely online? If he finds that we have trained most of the EU drivers that have left and gone back to their respective countries, could we at least give them a short-term visa to come back and help us out over the Christmas period—the noble Lord, Lord Grantchester, suggested that we might need this?

[Lord Frost (Con)]

My Lords, I agree of course with my noble friend that an aspiration for a world-class border is very important; that is where we intend to go. Indeed, we hope that the so-called single trade window —a single portal—will be a very significant part of that, as we take this forward. As regards HGV drivers, my right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Transport has, on a couple of occasions, set out our plans to make it easier to increase the supply of drivers, and I am sure that that will bear fruit very soon.

Devolved Administrations

Baroness McIntosh of Pickering Excerpts

Thursday 16th September 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord True (Con)]

No, my Lords. I do understand that there have been rhetoric and statements about this. I repeat what I said to the noble Baroness opposite: the Government are deeply committed to strengthening the union. Part of that, obviously, is showing full and appropriate respect to our partners in the devolved Administrations. I think that, when your Lordships come to see the outcome, it will be understood that the new intergovernment relations protocol and approaches will fully reflect that mutual respect.

[Baroness McIntosh of Pickering (Con)]

Will my noble friend look very carefully at areas where co-operation and collaboration are perhaps not working as effectively as they might? On a ministerial call with regulators in Scotland—the Faculty of Advocates, of which I am a non-practising member, and the Law Society of Scotland—concern was expressed that regulations implementing the primary legislation of the Professional Qualifications Bill, once adopted, might be passed without consultation with either them or the devolved Administrations. Will my noble friend give the House an undertaking that no regulations will be passed without prior consultation and consent?

[Lord True (Con)]

My Lords, I am not directly responsible for the professional qualifications legislation, so I am loath to give an incautious answer, but obviously I will refer my noble friend’s comments to those who are considering these matters.