European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Bill

Baroness Brown of Cambridge Excerpts

2nd reading & 2nd reading (Hansard): House of Lords & 2nd reading (Hansard)
Monday 13th January 2020 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Brown of Cambridge (CB)]

My Lords, like other noble Lords, I rise to urge the Government to include a legal assurance in the European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Bill that there will be no regression in relation to environmental standards as we withdraw from the EU and negotiate new trade agreements. I remind your Lordships of my interests as recorded in the register, in particular that I am the chair of the adaptation committee of the Committee on Climate Change. Other noble Lords have already spoken on this issue, so I shall be brief in adding my voice.

As the noble Baroness, Lady Parminter, reminded us, we are pleased to have heard many encouraging assurances: for example, the Conservative Party’s manifesto commitment to

“ensure high standards of … environmental protection”;

in the Queen’s Speech, the commitment

“to protect and improve the environment for future generations”;

through the Environment Bill, the intention

“to leave that environment in a better state than we found it”;

as set out in the 25-year environment plan, the intention in the new political declaration that

“the Parties should uphold the common high standards applicable in the Union and the United Kingdom at the end of the transition period in the areas of … environment”;

and in the Minister’s response to the debate on this issue in the other place on 8 January, the statement that

“there will be no regression.”—[Official Report, Commons, 08/01/20; col. 529.]

However, as the noble Baroness, Lady Bakewell, reminded us, there has been no indication of how this would be achieved.

The health of our environment is critical to our health and well-being, the productivity of our land, our resilience to the unavoidable impacts of climate change, our ability to reduce our emissions—for example, through all the tree planting we are planning to do—and the growth of energy crops. As Margaret Thatcher said in a speech to the Royal Society,

“the health of our economy and the health of our environment are totally dependent on each other.”

This is such an important issue for us and for future generations that I believe, as others do, that we need to go beyond encouraging assurances to legal certainty. I have put my name to an amendment to this Bill to provide that legal certainty, but I understand the desire to have no amendments, so I ask the Minister to assure us that the Government will provide such legal certainty, so that the amendment will be unnecessary.