Common Organisation of the Markets in Agricultural Products (Wine) (Amendment, etc.) Regulations 2021

Baroness Hayman of Ullock Excerpts

Thursday 15th April 2021 Grand Committee

[Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab) [V]]

I also start by thanking the Minister for his very helpful meeting with me and the noble Baroness, Lady Parminter, and for his openness about what has happened and the situation that has arisen. Clearly, as the Minister said, this is a very short instrument because its sole purpose is to reinstate a previously implemented operability amendment to geographical indicators that was inadvertently revoked by another Defra SI. This error has meant that the version of the EU regulation on the statute book following the transition period was technically incorrect, but we thank the Minister and his staff for their explanations yesterday that the impact has been minimal.

As we have already considered this instrument in Committee, and other noble Lords have discussed the wider implications, I also intend to keep my remarks brief. I was pleased to hear in the Minister’s opening remarks that he and his department have discussed the situation with both—[Inaudible]—and the devolved Administrations. I draw attention to the fact that, during consideration of previous Defra EU exit SIs, we have raised concerns around the possibility of drafting errors and potential for mistakes if Defra continues to favour multiple and sometimes overlapping instruments over one or two larger consolidating texts.

If we turn to Paragraph 7.1 of the Explanatory Memorandum,

“What is being done and why?”


we can see that our concerns have come to fruition in this case. I understand that it is often more complicated when we have so many different pieces of legislation that need to be updated, changed or brought into UK law following our departure from the EU, but it is concerning that mistakes such as this have been able to be made due to the complexity of the many different small pieces of legislation that are being passed.

I join the noble Baroness, Lady Parminter, in giving thanks to the member of staff who spotted this error, as it was extremely fortunate that it was picked up at this early stage. But I hope that the Minister will be able to explain how such an error came to be made. Is the department aware of any similar issues that have arisen in other areas? If so, how many have happened, and are relevant corrections being made? Has the department reviewed how it checks the drafting of often very complex and detailed legislation? We all need to have confidence in government legislation and confusion and avoidable errors are simply not acceptable. I thank the Minister again for his sincere apologies that such a mistake has happened and ask for his reassurance that there will not be any such confusion and reoccurrence in the future.