Draft Services of Lawyers and Lawyer’s Practice (Revocation etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019

Clive Efford Excerpts

Wednesday 16th January 2019 General Committees

[Lucy Frazer]

I thank the hon. Lady for the comments that she made at the beginning of her speech. It is always a pleasure to liaise with her, on these matters as on so many others. She was right to identify the importance of the legal services sector to our country, in terms of not only the amount that the sector brings to the economy, but the number of jobs that it provides. It is one of our country’s most successful industries, providing jobs up and down the country, and we in the Government and the Ministry of Justice absolutely recognise that.

We absolutely agree with the hon. Lady that it would be beneficial to have a future partnership with the EU, with continued reciprocal rights. That is why my Department and the Government more broadly have spent a considerable amount of time negotiating those matters in a future partnership with the EU over the previous months; that is why the Government put the deal that would have enabled a future relationship with reciprocal rights before the House last night; and that is why I voted for it. I hope that hon. Members will see that in the absence of a deal we need this statutory instrument to allow us to comply with our international obligations, including aligning and adhering to rules on reciprocal arrangements, while preserving the ability to promote the attractiveness of our leading legal services market.

[Clive Efford (Eltham) (Lab)]

I wonder what the Minister thinks about the situation in the House at the moment. Does she believe that there is a majority among Members of Parliament to leave the European Union with no deal? Rather than passing all this legislation, does she not think it would be more beneficial for the country if the Government were just to rule out using the option to leave with no deal? That would put the minds of a lot of businesses and industries at rest—

[The Chair]

Order. The hon. Gentleman is straying rather a long way from the detail of these particular regulations. I applaud him for his initiative and ingenuity, but I call the Minister.