Control of Mercury (Enforcement) (Amendment) Regulations 2025

Baroness Hoey Excerpts

Thursday 30th October 2025 Lords Chamber

Moved by

[Baroness Hoey]

At end to insert “but that this House regrets that, while the Regulations will extend the use of amalgam fillings in Northern Ireland, they do so by means of placing their provision, and thus the provision of NHS dental services in Northern Ireland, on an uncertain constitutional foundation.”

[Baroness Hoey (Non-Afl)]

My Lords, it is nice to see the noble Baroness answering on this statutory instrument, and I thank her for her outline of what it contains. I reassure noble Lords that, while the Whip’s notice says that today’s rising time will probably be about 7 pm, I have no intention—I do not think any of us have—of continuing this debate until then. That might be helpful.

Dentists in Northern Ireland are obviously relieved that the burden that was hanging over them regarding a date has now been lifted. I have brought this issue to the Floor of the House today as I feel, along with many of my colleagues from Northern Ireland, that it is important and necessary to expose how, drip by drip, the EU is taking more control over what happens in a part of the United Kingdom.

We have talked regularly about the 300 areas of law that are now out of our own Government’s hands, and sometimes it seems that no one understands the practical problems these are causing. We have seen the questions on duty-free, pet travel and the large numbers of GB businesses that are now refusing to send anything to Northern Ireland because of the bureaucracy. Just recently, in the last couple of days, we had the ridiculous situation whereby poppy sellers in Northern Ireland had to get EU leaflets and deal with EU bureaucracy to be able to sell poppies. That is outrageous, and I am sure noble Baroness would agree with me on that point.

So why am I concerned about this SI? The British Dental Association did a great job of alerting dentists in Northern Ireland to the fact that originally, the EU directive was going to ban amalgam filling from 1 January 2025 in Northern Ireland. That became a topic of much concern, and to be fair, His Majesty’s Government sought talks with the EU, which led to a Commission notice—Regulation 2024/1849—saying that instead of Northern Ireland being required to cease using amalgam fillings in June 2026, dentists could continue to December 2034.

The purpose of today’s SI is to give effect to the solution the EU Commission developed, but the solution is deeply problematic because these regulations rest on the foundation not of EU law but of a Commission notice. I am sure I do not need to remind noble Lords that there are several different types of EU law: regulations that are binding, directives that are binding, recommendations that are non-binding and opinions that are non-binding. The reality is that Commission notices do not even have the standing of non-binding law. Indeed, Commission notices are not law because, in the constitutional architecture of the EU, the Commission proposes legislation but does not make it; that is the role of the Parliament and the Council of Ministers.

The Commission is also not the judiciary; it usually adds to its statements. It usually says that

“the following is without prejudice to the fact that it is the role of the European Court of Justice to make final determinations in the application of the law”.

Indeed, after the Northern Ireland Assembly’s EU scrutiny committee had been notified of this change—and was quite pleased about it—a few weeks later the Department of Health sent it a letter regarding the standing of the Commission notice. I quote from it:

“It is described in the preamble as a ‘guidance note’ which is intended to facilitate the application of regulation (EU) 2024/1849”.


So it is not binding legislation in itself; rather, it is an interpretative aid to the application of the law in Northern Ireland, in the unique context of the Windsor Framework.

--- Later in debate ---

[Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent (Lab)]

As I said, I will reflect on everything that the noble Baroness said, and I will make sure that she receives the letter.

[Baroness Hoey (Non-Afl)]

My Lords, having listened to the debate, I feel I should have declared an interest at the beginning, in that I have amalgam fillings. I am very pleased that the Minister reiterated that, whatever the issue is in the longer term, amalgam fillings are safe. We would not want to be worrying the millions of people out there who have amalgam fillings.

I know that the Minister is not the Minister for dentistry—and I am sure she does not want to add that to her title. It was a very interesting debate, much wider than I had intended, in the sense that it was a constitutional issue that I wanted to raise. It has been very helpful—and I now know where the dentists among us are sitting for when my amalgam fillings go.

I thank everyone for speaking, particularly the Minister for her response. I hope she knows how well she is thought of in Northern Ireland. I thought her response was, in the circumstances, given the Government’s policy positions, very helpful indeed. It might be helpful if she could write to me outlining exactly what the legal position of the Commission’s notice is.

Finally, this is not about dentistry—although, if we are to ban amalgam fillings, we need to start now, to make sure our dentists are able to cope, because they will certainly have extra costs, which will be an issue in Northern Ireland.

The noble Lord, Lord Dodds, in his usual way, expressed how frustrating it is now for people in Northern Ireland. At the beginning, when all this happened, a lot of people in the public thought that it was all about business—big business, small business—and nothing to do with us. Now they are seeing so many things happening—the chickens are coming home to roost, as they would say. I really hope that noble Lords listening to these Sis—which we will continue to challenge, because we need to get the information out there—will understand that Northern Ireland is being treated as a second-class part of the United Kingdom. That is not acceptable. I beg leave to withdraw my amendment.

Amendment withdrawn.