Treaty Scrutiny: Working Practices (EUC Report)

Baroness Smith of Newnham Excerpts

Monday 7th September 2020 Grand Committee

[Baroness Smith of Newnham (LD)]

My Lords, it is quite rare to be able to respond directly to another Member in Grand Committee, unlike some other parliamentary business in normal times when we can jump up and respond. I had planned to start by talking about this dystopian world in which the working practice seems to be to sit in little booths—we could be in a call centre, calling people to ask, “Were you mis-sold a treaty? Did you sign up to the European Communities Act 1972 by mistake?” For people watching on television or merely reading Hansard, it is perhaps not quite clear how the Grand Committee is working in the current hybrid system. The noble Baroness, Lady Noakes, referred to it as a hostile environment. That might be the only point of her speech with which I agreed.

I obviously fit into the category of noble Lords who are rather disappointed that the United Kingdom has left the European Union. However, I do not believe for one moment that the need to scrutinise treaties and the importance we are giving to that this afternoon is simply because we are leaving the European Union and Members are unhappy about that. It is precisely the opposite. The clarion call of the Vote Leave campaign was “Vote leave, take back control”. I do not believe for one moment that the people who voted on 23 June 2016, or in the general election last year, thought that they were voting for Mr Dominic Cummings to set the agenda, nor that taking back control meant that Parliament would become supine. The idea that Parliament should become more supine the further we get from membership of the European Union is quite wrong. The role of your Lordships’ House is as a revising Chamber, but it is also to hold the Government to account. A fortiori, it is the role of the House of Commons to hold the Government to account. What each of these reports is saying is that, in the context of a post-Brexit world where international treaties have ever-greater scope, it is essential that Parliament plays that role.

Now, it is not clear what the current Prime Minister thinks about scrutiny. There has been reference to the previous Government’s comments in February 2019. The Lords Library also notes that, in response to the Constitution Committee’s report of July last year, Theresa May’s Government said that they thought that the CRaG Act remained a “viable legal framework”. However, they agreed that information sharing between the Government and Parliament could be improved, and they committed to

“engaging with whatever parliamentary scrutiny structures the Houses implement”.

That is our role.

As the noble and learned Lord, Lord Goldsmith, rightly said earlier, it should not be for government to decide which amendments are scrutinised. It should not be for government to set the agenda on scrutiny or set the timeframe; it should be for Parliament to do that. Parliament is not some beast seeking information; Parliament is looking to make sure that any treaties that the United Kingdom Government sign are in the best interests of this country. However, looking at the changes currently being suggested for the withdrawal agreement legislation that went through last year after extensive scrutiny, one might wonder whether this Government take very much notice at all.