Supply of Machinery (Safety) (Amendment etc.) and the EU Machinery Regulation (Enforcement etc. in Northern Ireland) Regulations 2026

Lord Empey Excerpts

Monday 20th July 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Empey (UUP)]

My Lords, the Minister correctly points out that after almost 20 years it is time for regulations to be updated to take account of technological and other developments. Nobody has an argument with that. However, the points that have been made by the noble Baroness, Lady Hoey, illustrate an ongoing problem. We are only at the foothills of this, because with the European reset about to take place, we are going to be confronted with a tidal wave of these SIs that will be going on for a long time.

On a number of occasions, I have argued that we have the potential to review this year our relationships with the TCA system and the European Union. We have had honeyed words from Ministers at the Dispatch Box saying, “Yes, we will do that”. I am not aware of anything currently happening. There is no meaningful attempt from government that I am aware of to seriously address what is not only a constitutional issue but rapidly becoming a serious economic issue.

The noble Baroness has illustrated, as happened in the other place, the issue of components coming into Northern Ireland to be part of a manufactured product which can then be sold on either to the EU, the world or GB. The Minister is very experienced; he knows business. He knows that to have an economy where you are constructing a product which could have hundreds of components—the form that the European Union produces, with each line with a number, down to washers, is overwhelming—the Government must take these issues seriously.

I am not going to get into the minutiae of the SI tonight because this is only an example; over the next few years, we will face literally hundreds of them. I therefore appeal to the Minister that when it is clear who is going to be representing his department at the Cabinet table—I wish it was him, but that is another matter—he asks whether the Government are going to address seriously the negotiating calamity that took place as we left the European Union, which produced the protocol, which produced the Windsor Framework. Nobody seems to be grasping this. It is costing this country an absolute fortune, with the Trader Support Service and all the differences, and the number of civil servants who have to monitor it. We are going round and round in circles, but no one is grabbing the politics or economics of it. We are just like nodding donkeys: if it comes from Brussels, that is what we do.

The Minister will have to accept that that is not good enough. I would like to see a serious negotiation. We can go back to the argument over Brexit and who was for or against it, but it was very clear to me and others like me, when we asked the Government for the plan they would introduce for Northern Ireland, that there was no plan. That is why some of us took the view that it was not the right time to make the move, but the people decided so we have to live with it and get on with it—and we must do so with enthusiasm. Whatever side of the argument we are on, a decision was taken and we have to live with it.

Therefore, instead of trying to subvert that decision, we have to try to implement it. That means that we do not do harm to our own businesses and constitutional position. I therefore ask the Minister to take back to his department the view that “Government plc” needs to reset our arrangements with the EU within the United Kingdom. We are neither fish nor flesh, and our businesses are confronted with at least two regimes; we have a patchwork quilt to try to repair the relationship. It was badly negotiated and it has been badly implemented.

I hope the Minister will take that back so that, when we come to the next one of what will be hundreds of these SIs, we might, I hope, see some light that the Government have got the message. I hope we can talk to our European partners to see whether we can find a solution, rather than having to do these things every so often.