Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland: Follow-up Report (European Affairs Committee)

Earl of Kinnoull Excerpts

Monday 11th September 2023 Grand Committee

[The Earl of Kinnoull (CB)]

My Lords, I will make three brief points. The first follows on from the point made by many other noble Lords about the noble Lord, Lord Jay, and his industry, expertise and skill. I say that from first-hand knowledge, because the European Affairs Committee and its sister committee, the Ireland/Northern Ireland protocol committee, had to be very closely co-ordinated throughout everything to ensure we were not tripping over each other. That took the form of a weekly meeting during pretty well the whole of the currency of these reports. I never left those meetings unimproved and without being amused. I pay tribute to the noble Lord.

The second point is to underline the issue of regulatory divergence and how it is proceeding apace. Another and different meeting that we regularly had between the committees was the sift meeting, which considered the EU documents being sent through to the committee family. We had to decide whether those documents would be dealt with by the Ireland/Northern Ireland protocol committee or by the European Affairs Committee. This gave us a great look into what was going on. Regulatory divergence is proceeding apace. This issue will add a lot of long-term complexity to the relationship between the UK and the EU and will throw up many issues. It will need to continue to be watched.

The final issue is the merits of an SPS agreement. This has been considered by the European Union Committee and the European Affairs Committee several times. The committee has reported several times and unanimously said that there should be one. In its very carefully nuanced paragraph 129 of the report on the Windsor Framework, the Ireland/Northern Ireland protocol committee asks the Government to come back to it on the merits of such an arrangement. Thanks to the noble Baroness, Lady O’Loan, I have been able to look at the Government’s response at great speed this afternoon. It would appear that the Government have not responded to that paragraph at all. I would be very grateful if the Minister could give some indication as to whether there will be a response to it.