Treaty Scrutiny: Working Practices (EUC Report)

Lord Lansley Excerpts

Monday 7th September 2020 Grand Committee

[Lord Lansley (Con)]

My Lords, I share with other noble Lords an appreciation of the excellent way in which these reports have been introduced, not least by the chairman of the International Agreements Committee, on which I serve. I was formerly a member of the EU Internal Market Sub-Committee. We have looked at the scrutiny of treaties, including the rollover treaties, over the course of the last year. I will reiterate a number of points that have been made but, first, this is not simply about asking the Government to come up with solutions. It is also about Members of this House, and the other place, making sure that we have a really effective system. I urge that the International Agreements Committee should, at the earliest possible moment, be given its own status, rather than be a sub-committee of the EU Committee, since much of what we do is not about the European Union any more. I know that there are positive discussions between the International Agreements Committee and other committees, including the International Trade Select Committee in the House of Commons, and this is important.

We have to make sure that the excellent reputation which this House achieved for its EU scrutiny, not least under my noble friend Lord Boswell, is replicated in our scrutiny of treaties. Speaking as a former Leader of the House of Commons, I know that we cannot rely upon that House to scrutinise in the detail necessary to expose the issues relating to treaties; this House must do that.

When we do that, we will rely on the Government being transparent. I share with the noble Lord, Lord Beith, regret that, in their reply to the Constitution Committee, the Government did not accept a presumption of transparency—not a requirement, nor an obligation in all circumstances, just a presumption. They could yet shift on that ground. As the noble Lord rightly said, and our committee has said in more recent discussions, we want to see the initialled and signed agreements with Japan when the Diet in Japan sees them. What the Government have said about seeing them when third countries see them is, I am afraid, an indication of their lack of willingness to put their own views forward.

As my friend, the noble Lord, Lord Kerr, has repeatedly said in our committee, transparency in these trade negotiations is often a strength for the negotiators themselves. The requirements for ratification by the Diet in Japan are quite restrictive and onerous. I declare an interest as chair of the UK-Japan 21st Century Group, which hears a great deal from our Japanese friends about their requirements to secure parliamentary approval and to run to a parliamentary timetable. I see no evidence that this has impeded or restricted Japan’s effectiveness in arriving at what they wish to see from international trade negotiations.

I hope that we will continue to have a positive approach by Ministers, not only by repeating their commitments in February 2019 but going beyond them in some of the areas discussed in our report. We have had excellent co-operation from Ministers to date; I hope that we will be able to build on that in the months and years ahead.