Freedom of Establishment and Free Movement of Services (EU Exit) Regulations 2019

Lord Brown of Eaton-under-Heywood Excerpts

Wednesday 23rd October 2019 Lords Chamber

I would be most grateful if the Minister could clarify those points. I suspect that he cannot, which will bring us back full circle to my reason for strongly supporting the amendment moved by the noble Lord, Lord Stevenson: to get the Government to withdraw the regulations and think again.

[Lord Brown of Eaton-under-Heywood (CB)]

My Lords, I am another lawyer, but I must not be mistaken for one who has worked on this particular problem. Indeed, I was not alive to it until I came into the Chamber this afternoon, so I am not another Lord Pannick or Lord Anderson of Ipswich—I am genuinely seeking a little clarification.

Perhaps I may focus the Minister’s attention on paragraph 7.8 of the Explanatory Memorandum. As I understand it, the whole question arises only if we leave with no deal, but the instrument is not required on leaving with no deal as matters currently stand, and there is nothing inconsistent with the directly effective rights currently enjoyed. The whole object, as I understand it from paragraph 7.8, is to prepare the ground so as to allow the Government, at some future date,

“to make policies and legislative changes which depart from the directly effective rights”.

Paragraph 4 of the report of the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee states that it would,

“enable the Department to introduce new policies and regulations that depart from this approach, for example by introducing new restrictions on EEA, Swiss and Turkish nationals or businesses”.

My question is this. If there comes, post leaving with no deal, a future point at which the Government do want to make policy and legislative changes to restrict rights, can they not at the same time as they would need the legislation to introduce those policies and legislative changes also do what is necessary to disapply what otherwise, absent this instrument, would be the continuing directly effective rights? In other words, why can we not wait until we see what future restrictive policies or legislation the Government would like to introduce post leaving with no deal? Can we not leave it until then to make any change that is then required and which is intended, by this instrument, to anticipate those future possibilities?