REACH etc. (Amendment etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019

Debate between Lord Whitty and Lord Geddes

Tuesday 26th March 2019 Lords Chamber

[The Deputy Speaker (Lord Geddes) (Con)]

I should inform the House that, if this amendment is agreed to, I cannot call either of the other amendments to the Motion on the Order Paper by reason of pre-emption.

[Lord Whitty (Lab)]

My Lords, in the light of that, I should like to speak to my amendment and to the contributions made so far. It is some time since I have found myself on the Front Bench, so I had better observe the niceties.

First, I thank the Minister for spelling out these complex regulations. No one denies the need, post Brexit, for robust regulation in this field. However, I contend that the way in which the Government are going about it is causing excessive bureaucracy and cost. The Minister rightly referred to the work that his department has done in talking to the industry, and the industry appreciates that, but he must be aware that there are still grave concerns among large sectors of the industry and firms, as well as downstream firms, about the situation post Brexit. I thank his department for all that work and I thank him for producing the latest UK REACH guidance yesterday, bringing together previous technical notes and updating them, but it is a little late given that these regulations were laid when we thought that by Friday we might be out of the EU.

I also thank the noble Lord, Lord Fox, for his amendment. I agreed with pretty much every word he said and I will try not to repeat his points—at least not at great length—but I disagree with the purport of his amendment. The regrettable fact is that we are in an unenviable position here. These regulations could have come into effect on Friday and might still come into effect in two and a half weeks’ time. As is the case with so many of the no-deal contingency regulations that we have been through, whatever we might think and whatever the ideal outcome might have been, industry, consumers and the workforce need some degree of certainty about what happens on Brexit day and the day after. If we do not have these regulations, as is the intention of the amendment of the noble Lord, Lord Fox, we will be in a legal vacuum. Given the complexity of this area, the potential danger and the hazardous nature of many of the chemicals covered by the regulations, as well as the legal and insurance situations, I suspect that a lot of trade will grind to a halt. That would be very dangerous for the environment and very expensive to the sector.

Water Bill

Debate between Lord Whitty and Lord Geddes

Tuesday 25th March 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Shipley (LD)]

My Lords, I contributed to the Bill in Committee but that was all on the Flood Re insurance aspects and did not relate to this part. However, in listening to the debate on sustainability and resilience, I was struck by the points about whether the Bill was worded strongly enough as regards the importance of sustainability. I recall the reply in Committee from the Minister, my noble friend Lord De Mauley, when he made it absolutely clear that Ofwat has had a stand-alone statutory duty to contribute to the achievement of sustainable development since 2005. In response to what the noble Lord, Lord Whitty, has said, I would like to turn it a different way round and say that this is actually about the outcome produced, and whether sustainability is strongly enough part of the Bill.

I pay tribute to the work of my noble friend Lord Redesdale in this respect. With this amendment, the Government have delivered the outcome that we want. The question is whether Amendments 61, 62 and 63 are sufficient to meet the arguments that were put forward in favour of the word “sustainability” at that stage. I think that these amendments are sufficient, and I have two reasons for concluding so. First, the resilience duty now requires the promotion of increased efficiency in the use of water. Additionally, the amendments made on Report in the House of Commons mean that the resilience duty includes a requirement that the sustainable management of water resources should be promoted as part of that resilience duty. In practice, therefore, the sustainability test is now being met.

Secondly, the Blueprint for Water coalition of environmental groups, which includes the World Wide Fund for Nature, the RSPB and the Wildlife Trusts, makes it clear in its comprehensive briefing for this Report stage that the Bill satisfies its previous call for Ofwat’s secondary sustainable development duty to be raised to a primary duty. I find its support for the Government’s position reassuring in this respect.

With the other proposals relating to abstraction reform, together with Ofwat’s existing trading and procurement code, which includes a sustainability clause, I think that the Government have made their case and should therefore be supported. Again, I pay tribute to the role of my noble friend Lord Redesdale and his advocacy on this issue. His efforts in Committee have produced the amendment that we are debating today.

[The Deputy Speaker (Lord Geddes)]

My Lords, perhaps I can be of assistance to the House, particularly the noble Lord, Lord Whitty. Paragraph 8.137 of the Companion to the Standing Orders says quite clearly:

“On report no member may speak more than once to an amendment, except the mover of the amendment in reply or a member who has obtained leave of the House, which may only be granted to … a member to explain himself in some material point of his speech”.

My interpretation is that provided the noble Lord, Lord Whitty, gets the leave of the House, he is able to answer—if he so wishes, of course.

[Lord Whitty]

I am not sure whether the leave of the House is divisible business. With the leave of the House, I will explain to the noble Baroness, Lady Byford, that the sustainable development duty under the current Ofwat remit is a secondary duty. For several other regulators, including Ofgem, it is now a primary duty. That is what my amendment seeks, and it would cover social, environmental and economic matters, not simply resilience and water efficiency.