European Structural and Investment Funds Common Provisions and Common Provision Rules etc. (Amendment) (EU Exit) (Revocation) Regulations 2020

Baroness McIntosh of Pickering Excerpts

Wednesday 16th September 2020 Grand Committee

[Baroness McIntosh of Pickering (Con) [V]]

My Lords, my questions are not dissimilar to those from colleagues, which I am sure will help the Minister a great deal. Obviously, it seems a little odd that we are considering revoking an instrument when we still have not reached a trading deal, so I do not know whether this instrument before us today is a little premature.

I will ask the Minister a couple of questions. Of the €9.5 billion of funding under the structural funds for the 2014-20 period to which my noble friend referred, how much of that is still left to run and what is the distribution of the amount left between the four nations? Can he assure us today that the cost of administering them up to 2023-25 will be less than these sums of money involved? Presumably, match funding will still apply, and that money will have already been allocated, so no new money will be required.

Specifically on the European agricultural fund for rural development, I understand that €100 billion has been allocated overall to the whole of the EU for the period from 2014 to 2020. As the clue is in the name—this refers to the rural development programme—I place on record how much the north of England, North Yorkshire in particular, has benefited from this fund. However, this raises the question on which we have not yet had clarification: how will the UK shared prosperity fund function? I would like confirmation from the Minister, if possible today, that a significant element of this fund will go towards rural areas and, in particular, that it will carry forward many of the strands set out in the rural development programme, which has benefited the UK so much, not just in the 2014-20 period but overall. As we have learned that the original SI we are revoking aimed to reduce social and economic disparities across the UK, can we be sure that the Government’s levelling-up programme will continue to do what this SI has done in the past?