European Union and European Atomic Energy Community (Immunities and Privileges) Order 2021

Lord Collins of Highbury Excerpts

Monday 5th July 2021 Grand Committee

[Lord Collins of Highbury (Lab)]

I too appreciate the Minister’s introduction of this instrument, which is relatively self-explanatory. Like him, I believe that, outside the EU, we all want to use the opportunities this provides to make Britain a successful nation. But to do so, we will need to foster strong ties with our closest allies in Europe, and I hope that this instrument can play a small part in that endeavour.

As the Minister said, the legislation before the Committee will give immunity to certain representatives and staff from the EU and EAEC in the UK, following the recent agreement. Although this is welcome, the Government’s approach to this issue in recent months has been unnecessarily reckless. The Committee will recall the reports, back in January, that the Government would not grant full diplomatic status to the EU. In fact, we had a substantial debate in this Committee in February when we dealt with the Bank for International Settlements SI—again giving immunities. It is rather shameful that this Government took so long to ensure that our relationships with the EU were put on a proper and formal footing.

In February, of course, we addressed some of the technical issues of immunity, not least the road traffic offences issue referred to by the noble Lord, Lord Thomas of Gresford. I welcome some of the explanations given then, but there is an important point to consider in relation to the issue raised by the noble Lord, which is exactly how somebody claims diplomatic immunity and the process to ensure that such a case could not possibly happen again.

There are a couple of other technical issues on this. First, the Minister said that the instrument was laid on 17 May, and the commencement clause says that it

“comes into force on the day after … it is made, or the day on which the Agreement enters into force … whichever is the later.”

I assume that the agreement is in force and therefore that the powers in the statutory instrument will commence, but I hope the Minister can clarify the precise date on which these immunities will be brought in.

Secondly, the Explanatory Memorandum states that Scotland will pass its own legislation due to devolved competence. When does the Minister expect that legislation to be completed?

Finally, the Government have confirmed that, as part of this agreement, information on the EU will be provided regularly. Can the Minister explain exactly what information will be contained in this and what the process is? I welcome the statutory instrument and the Minister’s introduction to it.