International Travel

Debate between Baroness Vere of Norbiton and Lord McNicol of West Kilbride

Thursday 1st July 2021 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Vere of Norbiton (Con)]

I do not know where the noble Viscount’s confusion has come from, but it is made very clear that when it comes to amber and red countries, the advice is not to travel. Of course, there will be people who will have personal reasons to travel, such as for a funeral, et cetera, but the advice is not to travel and the Government are very clear on that. With regard to PCR tests, in the UK it costs £85 for a two-test package or under £50 for a single-test package. If I look at comparisons, for example, the median cost of just one PCR test in the US is £90 and the average cost for a PCR for travel abroad in Spain is between €130 and €240, so we compare quite well to that. Whatever the cost of the PCR test, it is important that we bear down on those costs and that we take the advantage of economies of scale as more people are able to travel in the future.

[The Deputy Speaker (Lord McNicol of West Kilbride) (Lab)]

My Lords, the time allocated for this Question has elapsed. I apologise to the noble Lord, Lord Bourne, who did not get in.

Ship Recycling (Facilities and Requirements for Hazardous Materials on Ships) (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020

Debate between Baroness Vere of Norbiton and Lord McNicol of West Kilbride

Wednesday 18th November 2020 Grand Committee

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Transport (Baroness Vere of Norbiton) (Con)]

My Lords, these draft regulations will be made under the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 in order to give effect to the Northern Ireland protocol in the withdrawal agreement.

The United Kingdom has already introduced European Union exit legislation on ship recycling. The Ship Recycling (Facilities and Requirements for Hazardous Materials on Ships) (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019, approved by your Lordships’ House on 29 January 2019, will come into force at the end of this year. The purpose of these regulations is to ensure that our retained legislation on ship recycling will continue to be legally operable, and to transfer functions from the European Commission to the Secretary of State.

The regulations before the Committee today are necessary to implement the Northern Ireland protocol, which addresses the unique circumstances on the island of Ireland. The Northern Ireland protocol includes provisions in Article 5 which specify that certain provisions of EU law will apply in respect of Northern Ireland. The EU ship recycling regulation is one of the provisions listed in Annexe 2 of the protocol. As a consequence, EU law will affect ship recycling facilities in Northern Ireland.

The EU ship recycling regulation transposed key parts of the Hong Kong convention on recycling of ships into EU law. The provisions apply to ship recycling facilities in the EU and to EU-flagged merchant ships above 500 gross tonnes. They do not apply to military vessels.

The main provisions of the EU regulation have applied from 31 December 2018 and include: rules about the authorisation and permitting of ship recycling facilities; the steps EU and non-EU ship recycling facilities should take if they want to be listed in the EU’s approved list of ship recycling facilities, known as the European list; a requirement that all EU-flagged ships must be recycled at an approved ship recycling facility, according to a certified ship recycling plan; and a requirement that all new EU-flagged ships must carry a valid inventory of hazardous materials. The EU regulation also requires existing EU-flagged ships, as well as non-EU flagged ships calling at European ports, to carry an inventory of hazardous materials by the end of 2020.

The new draft regulations amend the 2019 exit regulations. This in turn amends the retained EU ship recycling regulation and devolved legislation which affects Northern Ireland. I stress at this point that we have consulted Ministers in the Northern Ireland Executive about the changes to the draft regulations, and they have given their consent.

This instrument makes two substantive changes. First, it amends the provisions affecting ship recycling facilities in Northern Ireland to reflect our obligations under the Northern Ireland Protocol. In particular, it prohibits facilities not on the EU’s approved European list from recycling EU-flagged ships, and it requires competent authorities in Northern Ireland to notify the Secretary of State about any change in the authorisation or permitting status of their facilities. It also requires the Secretary of State to notify the European Commission of any such changes.

The impact of the protocol means that the existing arrangements for Northern Ireland facilities will remain the same at the end of the implementation period. Facilities in Northern Ireland will remain listed in Part A of the European list, which covers facilities located in the EU and in the European Economic Area. Secondly, the draft regulations will incorporate changes to reflect the fact that, by the end of this year, existing UK ships and non-UK ships calling at UK ports must carry an inventory of hazardous materials. This is a welcome development, because new ships are already required to carry a certified inventory. Applying this provision to existing ships should result in a more coherent and complete regime for the safe and environmentally sound recycling of ships.

Ensuring the safe and environmentally sound dismantling and recycling of ships at the end of their operational life has been a concern for a number of years. Many ships are currently dismantled on beaches in Asia, with little regard for human safety or protection for the environment. It is important, therefore, that we continue to have an effective ship recycling regime, which protects public health and the environment.

The changes introduced by this instrument will ensure that environmental law continues to function at the end of the transition period and demonstrates that the UK is implementing its commitments under the Northern Ireland protocol. I commend these regulations to the Committee.

[The Deputy Chairman of Committees (Lord McNicol of West Kilbride) (Lab)]

The noble Lord, Lord Berkeley, has withdrawn, so the next speaker is the noble Lord, Lord Bradshaw.

High Speed Rail (West Midlands-Crewe) Bill

Debate between Baroness Vere of Norbiton and Lord McNicol of West Kilbride

Committee stage & Committee: 1st sitting (Hansard) & Committee: 1st sitting (Hansard): House of Lords
Monday 9th November 2020 Grand Committee

[The Deputy Chairman of Committees (Lord McNicol of West Kilbride) (Lab)]

Minister? You are fine?

[Baroness Vere of Norbiton (Con)]

I am good.

[The Deputy Chairman of Committees (Lord McNicol of West Kilbride) (Lab)]

Just to clarify again: if the proposer of an amendment, in their winding-up remarks, raises a question for the Minister, the Minister may respond to it. We cannot have a further debate in Grand Committee under the current system.

Electric Scooters

Debate between Baroness Vere of Norbiton and Lord McNicol of West Kilbride

Tuesday 29th October 2019 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Vere of Norbiton]

The noble Lord will know that enforcement is an operational matter for the police but I reassure him that over a one-week period in July, 100 people were stopped on the streets of London and were issued with fines; some of them had their e-scooters confiscated. I disagree with the noble Lord that, pending the regulatory review, we should not enforce. We do not know the outcome of the review; it is certainly our view at this time that we cannot guarantee that any changes to regulations will be made.

[Lord McNicol of West Kilbride (Lab)]

I declare an interest as somebody who used one of these e-scooters over the summer while on holiday in Paris. It was actually very enjoyable. May I encourage some proportionality in looking at the legislation and laws when they are brought in?

[Baroness Vere of Norbiton]

I am so pleased that the noble Lord enjoyed his trip on an e-scooter. I too have ridden one—indoors, at the party conference. He is completely right: we do not intend to shut the door on all these different and new types of transport, which are incredibly important to all sorts of people. Safety is our priority; that is the number one factor.

Package Travel and Linked Travel Arrangements (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2018

Debate between Baroness Vere of Norbiton and Lord McNicol of West Kilbride

Wednesday 28th November 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord McNicol of West Kilbride (Lab)]

I thank the Minister for her introduction to this regulation. As I was going through it, I started a note saying that this appeared to be one of the more straightforward regulations but the noble Baroness, Lady Randerson, and the noble Lord, Lord Deben, raised a number of questions and I have a few more. At this stage, there is not a lot to disagree with. It is just sad that we find ourselves in a situation where we are having to rebuild legislation and pieces of text that work well already. I am sure some of my shadow BEIS colleagues will have some points to raise when this is discussed in the other place.

If the Minister is not able to answer my questions, I am more than happy for her to write to me with a fuller explanation. In reading the Explanatory Memorandum accompanying the draft SI, she will be aware—this has been touched on already—that her department has recognised that there will be an additional financial cost for UK businesses arising from this instrument. On that basis, does the Minister not agree that an impact assessment should have been prepared before this debate? Can she inform us what the costs, as stated in the Explanatory Memorandum, will be for businesses?

As a result of these regulations, the mutual recognition of insolvency protection with EU member states will end. As part of the withdrawal negotiations, did the Government attempt to negotiate continued mutual recognition of this? If not, do they intend to try in future? If those mutual recognitions were in place, it would be far simpler than having to move forward as the instrument outlines. This instrument confirms that UK individuals and businesses will no longer benefit from mutual recognition of insolvency protection, and could therefore see a reduction in their consumer rights. In October 2017, the Prime Minister told the Commons that she wanted a new partnership with the European Union based on strong consumer rights. Can the Minister reassure us that, in light of the removal of mutual recognition, we will not see a reduction in consumer rights and protections?

Paragraph 2.3 of the Explanatory Memorandum states that these regulations are being changed to make them work for the protection of travellers after exit. This draft SI covers both package holidays and linked travel arrangements, and I have a specific question about LTAs. As we touched on earlier, an LTA is a holiday that includes two or more travel services, but the protection applies only when the services are booked from one website, shop or call centre, including through travel agents. Many of us now book our holidays online and build our own package holidays using more than one website or operator to arrange flights, hotels, care hire, tourist excursions or travel services. Crucially, these are often paid for separately. As I am sure the Minister will know, these holidays that we build ourselves are therefore not covered. Did she or her department consider extending the definition of LTAs to cover that wider definition, by removing the need for it all to be from a single website or shop, thus giving added protection?

As we all know, if one part of our holiday fails the whole holiday could be ruined. If the definition was expanded slightly to cover this style of holiday, it would offer far more protection for holidaymakers; surely that would be a good thing. I reiterate a point made by the noble Baroness, Lady Randerson, which was also touched upon by the noble Lord, Lord Deben. That is the question of who will check—and where the checks will be made—on the insolvency protection that needs to be offered by EU businesses providing services within the UK. Will this sit with individuals, the travel agent, or the providers, and how will it be monitored?

[Baroness Vere of Norbiton]

I thank noble Lords for their contributions and, once again, I hope to answer as many questions as I can. On the point made by the noble Lord, Lord Deben, I am a little worried that he thinks the world is coming to an end with these regulations. I assure him that it is not, and that this is actually quite a minor change. He talked about why we are removing ourselves from mutual recognition—well, that is only in the context of no deal. If we have a deal, mutual recognition may well remain on the table in the future and, as part of the negotiations for the future economic partnership, we will have mutual recognition. Even without mutual recognition, we must understand that a lot of people go on holiday outside the EU where there is no mutual recognition. This concept is not entirely unknown to the providers of travel services and to consumers.

Nobel Lords have raised a number of issues. I hope to put their minds at rest as to what the different impacts will be; it is clear that there might be some impacts and it is important that we set out exactly what they are. The first issue I address is the impact on UK retailers—this was raised by the noble Baroness, Lady Randerson; indeed many noble Lords have spoken on it—and what they will have to do to make sure they have coverage. The first thing they can do is look at the contracts they have with their suppliers across the EU, providing all sorts of different services. They can look at their contracts and they might adjust them to say that insolvency protection up to a certain standard is suitable for the travel agency and needs to be in place.

The impact assessment assumes that this can be achieved. Given that many traders will have experience of this in non-EU countries, it assumes that a person would need maybe three hours of training and advice to get to that stage. After a couple of hours of legal advice, the contracts could be amended for all participants within the travel arrangement. Some noble Lords may be thinking that surely there will be some providers who cannot provide the appropriate level of insolvency protection—that is indeed the case and our impact assessment looked at that. In such cases, it is possible to buy insurance; this is done with a fair amount of frequency within the sector—it is not unknown. Our impact assessment, which is a little higher than it should be, assumes that all 1,695 travel agents will be impacted by this; of course, that is clearly not the case. We assumed that insurance would be needed in 20% to 25% of cases and that, on average, it would cost £4,200 per business. That is how we got to the figure of between £1.4 million and £1.8 million—

[Lord McNicol of West Kilbride]

The Explanatory Memorandum says that there is no associated impact assessment for this legislation. Will the Minister please clarify?

[Baroness Vere of Norbiton]

In circumstances such as this, the impact assessment would not usually be published. There is an impact assessment but, because it falls below the £5 million threshold, it is not published in detail. I thought noble Lords might be interested to hear how we got to these figures because it is important to understand that. Within the context of the revenue as a whole for this sector, clearly it is not a large amount. I would expect the trade associations to get involved in this area and to help their members to sort it out in a sensible and swift fashion.

[Lord McNicol of West Kilbride]

The point about trade associations was one that I scrubbed out. The Explanatory Memorandum says that there was no consultation. Can the Minister clarify whether there was consultation with the individual companies or trade associations?

[Baroness Vere of Norbiton]

I am afraid that I am not currently able to clarify that but I will write to the noble Lord if anything comes to light. However, from my experience of running a trade association in the past, albeit not one relating to holidays, I can say that this is exactly the sort of thing that trade associations would get involved in. If I were a member, I would expect them to be right on top of this and getting to grips with it.